An Unfortunate Set of Circumstances
by TheHauntedKeyboard
Summary: Rim has always seemed to have bad luck, and has found herself more than once in a bad situation. Though when she's forced to team up with a rude talking monkey, a smart scientist, a guy who loves green way too much, and possibly the craziest teenage boy on the planet, Rim has to wonder how she'll be able to come out of this in one piece. Rex X OC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

 **I wrote this story mostly for fun, it's one of those insert your OC into the episodes types. So if you don't enjoy that than this probably isn't the story for you, also I've already written most of it so updates should be pretty steady, except that I'm still working on a ending.**

 **oOoOo**

It all started because of a cup of coffee. I love coffee, that's why I was in this mess. I couldn't sleep, I was in that annoying state when you're tired but can't sleep. And since I had no work tomorrow, it was Sunday, I decided why not treat myself and head to Sunny's café and get myself some much-needed coffee?

I actually worked at the place a couple days a week. It was a nice little café, next to the lake. It hadn't been very busy, probably because of how late it was. Actually there wasn't many people around at all so I had had the great idea to walk around the beach, sipping my drink. It was a nice beach, long, with mountains of boulders sprinkled here and there separating it into sections.

I climb over a large rock, going around a corner and out of sight of anyone in town. I breathe in the fresh air, and smile. It was peaceful, the sound of the waves, the darkness. Funny how small your problems can seem if you just ignore them. Just for a moment.

The only light was the full moon, which looked beautiful. The wind whips by, tugging at my medium length light brown hair, I pull my dark blue hoodie over my head. The only problem right now was the sand steadily getting into my sneakers. Annoyed, I climb over to another rock, sit down and place my coffee next to me. I take off my sneaker and pour out the sand, relaxed I lean back closing my eyes. I stay like that for a few seconds, listening to the crashing off the waves, the wind rustling the nearby trees, the sounds of someone angrily cursing…

…Wait…

I open my eyes, confused. I strain my ears and I hear it again, there was definitely someone nearby, and they didn't sound happy.

I put my sneakers back on, grab my cup and stand up slowly. The smart thing to do would be to ignore it and head back to the lights and safety of Sunny's Diner. But…I was curious. I know, I know, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, right?

Quietly I climb up and over the mountain of boulders, on the last one I look down and below me was…a girl? From what I could see, she had black hair, and was wearing a skirt, her back was turned to me but I noticed something…odd. Maybe the darkness was playing tricks on my eyes but I could swear that she had an extra pair of arms.

I repeat, an _extra pair of arms._

What.

"It's all his fault!"

I hardly dare to breathe as I lean forwards trying to hear what she's saying.

"Always getting in the way! Always making me look bad in front of Van Kleiss!"

She angrily kicks at the sand. This girl had problems, well, besides the obvious extra limbs. She screams, frustrated.

"I'll kill him! I swear I will! I'll kill you, Rex!"

I have no idea who this Kleiss guy was, or Rex. But I really want to know how crazy this Rex guy must be to piss off the chick with two extra arms. By now I was starting to realize that I might just have walked into a bad situation. Now would be a good time to leave…

I start to slowly, quietly, climb down the boulder, scratching my black trousers. As I reach for a handhold I accidentally hit my cup, sending scolding coffee spilling over the side of the boulder…the side where the girl was.

I freeze as I hear a shocked yell, as the hot coffee hits the girl. I cautiously crawl up a bit and look over the edge of the rock, and nearly scream as I see the girl looking up, glaring right at me. Coffee was dripping down her hair on to her face, she snarls at me. Her hands, all four of them, balled into fists.

"Uh…s-sorry…" I squeak.

She screams again, and I flinch. She jumps up, high, way higher than a normal person could, and starts to climb the rock _towards me._

"OH SHIT!" I shriek, leaping off the boulder and on to another one. We start a strange game of cat and mouse, me jumping from boulder to boulder, nearly falling at times, and her angrily screaming her head off, chasing me.

I jump from the last boulder onto the sand, and take off running. "HEEEELPPP!" I scream, but I had gone father from the café then I had realized, no one was around to here me.

I can hear her behind me, getting closer and closer. Suddenly I feel a large hand grab me around my waist and raise me high up into the air. I scream again. At this rate I was going to lose my voice. And, you know, my life too.

"W-W-Wait…" I try to stutter out, struggling against her grip. She just tightens her hold, and I gasp as the pressure against my ribs increase. I had never broken a bone before, and I really didn't want to start.

"Who are you?! Did Providence send you?!" She growls, coffee dripping from her hair.

"Wh-Providence?!" What the hell did that group that stops EVOs have to do with this?! "N-No! I'm not! I swear, I was just walking, okay, climbing, by when I accidentally spilt my coffee on you!"

She growls again, not believing me. "Are you with them? Were you spying on me?! It's always me! I try so hard, and then you people ruin everything!" She rants.

I had no clue what she was going on about. Actually I hardly had a clue about what the hell was going on. "Um, I'm not one of 'those' people, so…please let go…"

"LIAR!" She roars.

I yelp as out of nowhere a red portal thing appears next to her.

"I'll show them! I'll show you all!" She yells as she jumps into the red portal, bringing me with her.

I blink as my eyes are suddenly assaulted by bright lights, squinting I look around. Gone was the sandy beach and waves, replaced by some sort of high tech looking room, with a bunch of people in white and black uniforms, holding guns. All the guns were pointed at us.

I can't even talk; I just stare, trying to take everything in. I think I was in shock. The crazy chick continues to rant.

"I found your little spy!" She snarls.

One of the soldiers in white seems to be speaking into a talkie, radioing for backup. A door on the side of the room opens and a lady in a lab coat, a tall man in a green suit holding a pair of swords, a guy who looks around my age, and…a monkey run into the room.

"Breach, what are you doing here?" The guy my age calls out, getting into a fighting stance. He had a cool jacket.

"Just dropping off your friend, Rex." She replies, waving me around. If I weren't in a life or death situation, I would probably be dying of embarrassment with all the people staring at me. Oh, and so the crazy girl was named Breach. That explains…literally nothing.

"I-I have no idea what's going on." I blurt out in a panicky voice.

"Let the girl go." The guy in green orders, holding his swords up menacingly.

"Sure I will, just after I take a little present for Van Kleiss." She hisses. My eyes widen as she whips her arm towards them, throwing me. I spin in the air, going head over heels, literally, as I fly across the room.

I hear the guy with the cool red jacket yell in alarm as he leaps back and catches me. I stare up at him in surprise.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"Uh…no, not really." I reply honestly, as I quickly scramble out of his arms taking deep breathes. My head was spinning.

"Get her!" Green guy yells in alarm as Breach grabs a strange looking machine thing from off the walls.

The guards start to fire, but she just turns to us and winks, opening up a portal and easily stepping through.

She disappears.

"Okay. What just happened?" The monkey asks.

I turn to him, my jaw practically touching the floor. "You can talk?!"

He crosses his arms, glaring at me. "Wow, observant."

"The monkey… can talk…and it has an attitude…" I mutter, the dizzy feeling getting worse.

"Why did Breach attack you?" The lady with the lab coat asks me, stepping closer.

"It-she thought, well…" I struggle trying to explain this whole mess. "She thought I had something to do with Providence, because I spilt coffee on her."

"Uh…say what?" Other guy asks, bewildered.

I sigh, the dizzy feeling getting worse. "Wrong place, wrong time."

The last thing I see is the lady and guy coming closer, concerned looks on their faces as I start to lose my balance, swaying. Then, darkness.

 **oOoOo**

I hear a strange beeping sound. When I try to open my green eyes their assaulted by bright light and I snap them shut. I groan in pain and I hear people talking.

"Look, I think she's waking up!"

I groan again. "Did anyone get the license plate of the car, truck, and possible jet that hit me?" I croak out.

"Shhh, don't talk, here have some water." A women's voice says.

I feel someone lift up my hand and place a cool glass in it. I eagerly accept and bring the water to my lips, quickly downing the entire thing.

Slowly I open my eyes, squinting. Looking around I realize I'm in what looks like some sort of medical room, on one side of my bed is the lady with a lab coat, on the other is that guy again, and the monkey with an attitude problem.

Seeing them instantly sends a rush to my head, as I remember my whole crazy encounter with the extra limbs girl.

I gasp, shooting straight up, then groan as my head explodes in pain. I drop back on to the pillow moaning, clutching my head.

"You shouldn't move so fast…" The lady warns me.

"Yep." I answer, not looking up. "I realized."

"I know you must not be feeling very well right now, Rim. But I would like you to answer a few questions."

I start at the new voice; I look over as the man in the green suit enters the room. He was wearing shades, even though we were inside. Weird. And even weirder was…

"How do you know my name?" I ask warily.

"We know a lot more then you think Rim Cricket." He replies ominously.

Brown hair boy rolls his eyes. "He probably just ran you through our population database." What was his name? I think the crazy chick yelled it…Red? Rex?

I raise my eyebrows. "Nifty. I'll answer your questions, if you answer mine. What the hell is going on, who are you people, and…why are you wearing sunglasses inside?" I tend to swear when nervous.

"He just loves the whole mystery act." Rex jokes, ignoring the cold look from the man.

"You were brought here by Breach, who had the idea that you were a spy working for us." Green guy continues. "I am Six, this is Dr. Holiday, Rex, and Bobo." He says, gesturing to each.

His name was Six? That's a strange name…

"That's Agent Haha to you." Bobo adds. I look at him oddly.

"Can you explain why Breach thought you were working for us?" Six asks, though it sounded more like an order honestly. Also, this guy had the best poker face I had ever seen. I mean, the way he talked we could be talking about the weather. Also, he said us, which meant that they were Providence…geez.

"I'll try to explain it, but it's probably going to sound kind of crazy…"

"Believe me, we can handle crazy." Rex chuckles.

I shrug and explain it as best as I can, my whole crazy tale. At the whole spilling coffee on Breach's head part Rex and the monkey laughed so hard I thought they were going to pop a lung or something.

"Well, at least she didn't suck you into her own little pocket dimension." Rex comments.

I turn to Rex, an eyebrow raised. "Uh…sure. Also she _really_ hates you."

Rex scoffs. "Feeling's mutual."

"You have had a pretty crazy night." Dr. Holiday says, giving me a sympathetic smile. Her dark brown hair was in a bun, she looked completely professional. Her hair was perfect, way different then my annoying crazy wavy hair.

"Just a bit." I laugh leaning deeply against the pillows.

"We should contact your parents, so they know where you are and that you're safe." Dr. Holiday adds.

I freeze a bit, my smile slipping off my face. looks at me curiously, but I glance over at Six. If he had really checked up on me…

"That's not possible." Six nods, and even though he still had that Poker face on, I think his voice went a bit soft. Just a little bit.

"What do you mean Six? They must be worried." Dr. Holiday asks, the others look confused too.

I start to fiddle with the sleeve of my sweater, not looking anyone in the eye as Six explains.

"She has no parents, since a incident a couple of years ago. She's been taking care of herself for the past while."

I can sense their stares on me and I fiddle even more. This wasn't fair. I didn't ask for all my business to be shown to a bunch of strangers, especially stuff so personal.

"So…what now?" Rex asks.

"It may be best for her to stay with us for a time." Six answers.

I look up, this getting my attention. "Woah, woah, what? Why?"

"Because Breach seems to believe you are working for us. And she now knows where you live. If you return so soon she may attack the people close to you as revenge."

I bite my lip, thinking. It's true, I had no parents. I had some people that I knew sort of well, but no one really close besides my boss who was a thirty something year old guy with a three year old kid. It would be horrible though if Breach showed up there, and hurt people in some sort of sick revenge plot.

"For how long?"

"We can't know for sure. A few months at least."Six replies.

I bite my lip. Things were moving so fast, it was hard to think.

"Uh, hey Six, what was the thing that Breach took?" Rex asks, changing the subject, thankfully.

"It wasn't something very important. A piece of equipment from one our experiment projects on nanites. It will set us back a few months, but nothing we can't fix." Six answers.

Rex nods, but there's a frown on his face. "And why didn't she just…well… kill Rim when she had the chance if she thought she worked for Providence?"

"I have a theory on that. You say that when you first encountered her she was frustrated, angrily talking about Rex and a man named Van Kleiss?" Six asks, the question directed towards me.

I nod.

"Perhaps she thought she had to prove herself, as of late we have been foiling many of their plans. Maybe she thought bringing Rim back here would prove she had the upper hand, that she could take what we threw at her. And by taking one of our equipment pieces right from us that she was better than us in a way." Six theorizes.

"Well I for one, think that she's a few slices short of a loaf of bread." Bobo comments.

"Yah, no kidding." Red agrees.

My mouth twitches into a small smile. notices and turns to Rex suddenly saying "Rex, why don't you show Rim around the facility? Maybe it will help her feel more…settled. While your gone we'll take care of the sleeping situation.

"Sure, it'll be fun." Rex says, shrugging.

I glance at him. I hardly knew the guy. I hardly knew any of these people. I think I could trust them, but still…well I guess it's better then lying in this bed all day.

"Okay…" I slowly get up, feeling a few bruises. "How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours."

I nod, following Rex out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**oOoO Bobo's POV oOoO**

I start to follow after them, but stop when I feel someone grab onto my shoulder. I turn, giving Holiday a confused look.

"Let them go." She says with a soft smile. "This is probably very overwhelming for the girl, and honestly, having you around might complicate things. And Rex and her are the same age, it would do some good to spend some time together."

I grumble, sitting down in a chair. "Fine, whatever. I needed a nap anyways."

 **oOoOo Rim's POV OoOoO**

"And here's the cafeteria! I come around here on Tacho Tuesday, but stay away from Mystery Meat Monday, stuff tastes like it's been rotting in the sun since forever!"

I laugh, staring in at the large cafeteria. I was feeling less tense, Rex was a funny guy and his carefree ways were rubbing off on me. I had been careful not to ask too many questions though, since I didn't know him very well. But I was pretty curious about why he was here in the first place.

"Oh, but the best is the meat loaf and mashed potato's on Fridays! I got them to add that after I ran away and got into a fight with this evil computer that wanted to destroy all nanites."

"…Huh?" I murmur, bewildered.

He shrugs. "It's a long story, maybe I'll tell you later. Anyways, want to see our petting zoo?" He asks.

"Petting zoo?" I repeat, glancing at him.

He had a mischievous smile on his face. "It's not _exactly_ a petting zoo. It's a place where we keep a few EVO's in their natural habitat to study."

"Uh, that sounds a little dangerous." I mutter, warily.

"Nah, trust me we can be in and out before anyone notices." Rex says confidently.

Seeing that I was still hesitating he elaborates.

"If something happens, I can handle it. Besides, if you agree to come with me I'll make sure we do it in style."

"Style?"

He just smiles, a mischief look in his eyes. Right in front of me he…well…transforms. His legs do, at least. Suddenly his legs turn into a sort of car thing. He was half machine!

I yelp and jump back at the sudden light show, he laughs. "Don't worry, I got this under control. I'm part EVO, and able to control the nanites, allowing me to turn my body into different machine parts. This right here is what I call the Rex Ride. Also I'm able to cure the infected…usually."

Ohhh, that explains what he was doing here. He can cure EVO's? …Woah.

I stare at him, examining the machine. "That's…awesome."

He beams. I had the feeling that he didn't always get such a positive reaction.

"You know it! So, want a ride?"

"…Sure." I shrug and awkwardly climb on, holding on to his shoulders from behind.

"Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy!" He warns, before taking off.

I quickly grab around his waist instead, holding on for dear life as we go ripping down the halls. Agents scatter out of the way as Rex drives through.

"Wooooaaaahhhh!" I yell out as we burst through a set of doors into a large tropical looking room, like a giant indoor garden.

He drives around, spotting out all the strange creatures. There was a large bird looking one, and a squid thing swimming in a pond. There was what I first thought was a bush with strange berries, until I realized the berries were actually eyeballs. As we explore he explains to me a bit more about Breach, and how she's part of a group of evil jack wads (his words) and that their leader was Van Kleiss and how he basically wanted to take over everything.

"Sounds like a nice guy, can't wait to meet him." I had said sarcastically. Great, I had pissed off the one crazy chick who was friends with the evil guy trying to take over the world. Wonderful.

After another hour he takes me back to the others. Holiday shows me to my room, a nice place in a hallway, across from Rex's room.

"And here is your bed." She finishes her little tour.

I nod, looking around. It was way bigger then the little apartment I had back home.

"Thank you…for everything."

She nods, smiling. "Don't worry about it. And if you have any concerns or questions, just ask one of us and we'll gladly help."

I fidget a little; something had already been on my mind for a while. "Would it be okay if I contact my boss? I don't want to think I'm skipping or something…

Her eyes go wide. "Oh, yes of course they would be worried…I'll go talk to Six."

She leaves to go find him. I walk around my room a bit. It was a four room place, with a kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathroom. I don't know if I was going to use the kitchen much, since I couldn't cook. But maybe I should learn, if what Rex said about the cafeteria food were true, it wouldn't always be very reliable.

After checking a few drawers and cabinets I find out that they had already stacked a few food stuff, like cereal and such which would last me a bit. And if one drawer in the bedroom there was a few sets of clothes. Boring stuff, not very colorful, a few black shirts and pants and stuff. I was going to have to make a note to go shopping. The room was nice, but completely un-personal. I missed my old photos, posters, and books which I had read scattered around.

After a few minutes Six comes back to inform me that I couldn't contact my boss personally right now. But by tomorrow morning they would have one of their agents contact my boss to assure them that I was alive and safe, but they couldn't tell them details. I guess I understood that, but it was annoying. After insisting a bit, Six finally caves a little and says that by the end of the week if everything goes well I would be able to call one of them myself.

So ends my old life, and here begins a new. I guess.

 **oOoOo**

A few days go by, nothing very exciting happening. While Rex is out there kicking EVO but, I'm stuck in here. Today was Monday, and I really didn't want to eat the mystery meat, unless I knew what was in it.

"Could you tell what exactly is in the mystery me-woah!" I yell, jumping out of the way as she pushes a cart through the room with a giant dead _bug_ on it.

"Sorry Rim, busy." Is all she says as she runs by.

The rest of the day is spent with me itching like crazy, after seeing that thing it had made me paranoid. I didn't really know what was going on, they weren't allowed to tell me details. Everyone seemed crazy busy, and I hardly saw Six, Bobo, or Re because they kept having to head outside to do something. The only thing I knew was that was annoyed at them about something. Only reason I knew this was because I caught her muttering angrily about men using violence as the only option are something like that.

I tried to stay away. But then I spotted a bunch of agents pushing Rex who was lying down on a cart, unconscious, through the hallway.

"What happened?" I cry, rushing forwards.

"Injured in a battle, we have to take him straight to Dr. Holiday." One of them tells me. I follow them until we reach a room, where one of them blocks me entrance.

"Sorry, you can't enter."

I nod, but wait by the door, even when the guards leave. I even try to open the door anyways but it's locked. I had no idea what was going on, and I was pretty worried.

A few hours pass, I wait in a room opposite the one Rex is in so I can hear if the door opens or not. The room i was in was a sort of small lounge and I bide my time by reading through some of the books on the shelf. Finally I hear the door open and I run into the hall, spotting Rex walking out of the room.

"Rex! Are you o-" I stop mid-sentence when I get a good look at him.

He was wearing an oversized lab coat…and that's it.

"Uh…" I quickly turn away, my cheeks going scarlet.

He's also blushing, surprised. "Rim! Uh, what are you doing here?"

"I saw them carry you in, what the heck is going on? And…why are you just wearing a lab coat?"

He blushes even more, he was starting to look like a tomato. "It's a long story, but I got attacked by a bunch of giant metal eating bugs and nearly drowned, but I'm okay now! And had to take my clothes so she could try to get some samples of their spit."

Wow. That explains everything.

"Uh…okay?" I say, still extremely confused.

"I…gotta go." Rex quickly hurries off down the corridor.

…Ok then.

A day goes by, and I end up in this large room with a bunch of computers with the others, minus Rex. I found out that things have been so crazy lately because there was a massive outbreak of metal eating bugs, but thankfully they stopped it in the end.

We were watching the news about it, on a _seriously_ large TV. No joke, it took up an entire wall!

"A massive section of the Great Wall fell tragically yesterday." Says the women reporter. "But as the world mourns it also celebrates the millions of lives saved in Asia."

Rex joins us, this time only wearing a bathrobe. I raise an eyebrow at him, and he blushes. I roll my eyes. Geez man, get some pants!

"I just woke up." He mutters.

Ah, that would explain the bed head. It was kinda cute actually…

"Lives saved in large part by something you may find hard to believe." The reporter continues.

"Wait for it…" Bobo drawls.

"These colourful undies." The reporter states, as a pair of underwear with red motorcycles on them show up on screen.

"Huh?" I blurt out, completely confused.

The guards around us cheer and laugh, as the reporter talks, saying that sources say that these undies gave Providence scientists the scent they needed to turn the bugs against themselves.

I remember my embarrassing encounter with Rex in the hallway, and how he had said that had taken his clothes for samples…

"Why is my underwear on TV?" Rex asks, disturbed, confirming my suspicious.

"Uh no, the better question is, why do they have motorcycles on them?" I can't help but say.

Rex blushes again, then glares at Bobo. "Sources? This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I stomped more bugs then you, would it?" Rex asks dangerously, leaning down in front of Bobo.

"Heh, what do you think?"

"I think I'm going back to bed now…" Rex quickly escapes, ignoring the applaud coming from the soldiers and the cheering from Bobo.

"…Is it always like this?" I ask.

"Yes." Both Holiday and Six say.

Well one thing good came out of this whole wacky situation. A week had passed, and I got to make a phone call to my boss. Of course I couldn't say specifics, and the call would be listened in on, and it had to be short, but still!

"Tile!" I happily exclaim when I hear someone finally answer the ringing phone. I have to quickly pull my head back when my ear is suddenly assaulted by shouting.

"RIM?! Where are you?! WHAT is going on?! I suddenly get a call from PROVIDENCE saying that because of _reasons_ you are to stay with them? WHAT?"

Poor Tile. The stress of taking care of his three year old by himself, then suddenly having me his favourite waitress disappear must have been killing him. He was a really nice guy, and we were close, he was kind of like my crazy uncle or something.

"I can't say too much but basically yeah. I know it's weird but I just kind of happened to be at the wrong time and place, and a lot of stuff happened, and if I returns people can be in danger…" I struggle to explain everything, while also _not_ explaining everything. You see my problem here?

"What?" Tile says, mystified. "Well…how long are you going to be stuck there?!"

"I don't know…" I fiddle with my sleeve.

"What?!" Tile repeats. "Just…geez! Well….are you okay? They're not hurting you or anything right?"

"No, no, I'm fine. Actually they're kind of nice, even a guy my age. And a talking monkey." I try to reassure him.

"…This makes no sense."

I nod, even though he can't see it. "I know, I'm sorry. I have to go though, love you guys…hope I see you soon."

"Wait, what? Already?" Tile cries, alarmed.

"Yah, I'm sorry…"

"Just-just be careful..." Tile pleads.

"I'll try. Bye." I turn off the phone, and place it on the table. I stare at it mournfully. Six had given me some space and let me use an empty room, promising that while the call would be listened in on, I myself would be left alone.

I feel tears start to come to my eyes, and I close them, trying to hold it back.

A minute, I would give myself a minute. I had learned to deal with crying when I was younger. It had been a sign of weakness. That's what I had been taught by other kids at the orphanage. Even after being able to leave, old habits die hard.

I cry, not making a sound. A minute goes bye and I stop, wiping at the tears. Taking a few deep breaths I compose myself. I pick up the phone and leave the room, like it had never happened.

 **oOoOo**

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeaaassee? If I don't go outside soon, I'm gonna go crazy and strangle somebody!" I whine.

Six sighs, putting down the folder he had been studying. He looks up at us, an eyebrow raised. "It's dangerous, Breach could-"

"Breach, smitch!" Rex scoffs. "She wont show, and if she does so what? I'll be there to stop her if she does. It's just a game of basketball Six, come on! I haven't even gotten to introduce Noah to Rim yet!"

And after hearing my complaints about being stuck here Rex had had the idea to bring me to meet his friend Noah, and to play basketball with them.

Six just looks at us again, and slowly lets out another sigh. "Fine."

"YES!" I raise my hands into the air.

"But, be careful." Six warns.

"Yes sir!" Rex salutes, then quickly drags me off.

After a quick, but very cool ride on a Providence jet (Rex had made fun of me for being so excited about flying on the jet, but hey I had never been on one before!) we had landed in a small town where this Noah kid lived. After meeting with the guy we had walked over to a nearby court. Noah seemed nice, and he knew about me from Rex.

Now we were getting ready to play, me and Noah VS Rex. Which might not have seemed fair, but Rex had assured us that he was going to 'destroy us' and we 'had no chance.'

Noah and I had rolled our eyes. I told him to shut up and play ball. A few rounds go by, and I had realized that Rex _sucks_ at basketball. I wasn't that great, but he was really not good, and actually Noah seemed to have some skill. Even though Rex had the advantage height wise-a few inches taller then Noah, and I only came to his shoulder, he was still losing. Badly. He reminded us repeatedly that he was better at volleyball, which Noah grudgingly agreed to. But even so, we were still winning, but Rex was not one to be daunted.

"You're going down!" He exclaims, sweat getting into his eyes. He had taken off his jacket and leaved it by the fence. I had done the same with my blue sweater, revealing the short sleeved black shirt I had on. He runs forwards dribbling the ball, Noah goes in front of him and he quickly backs up.

I launch forwards for the ball but he quickly jumps back, throwing it into the air. It hits the net board and bounces off; Rex jumps and catches it again.

"You're serious?" Noah jokes.

"Okay, whoever makes the next shot is the all time champion." Rex exclaims.

Noah and I step closer, and Rex eyes us, glancing up at the net. But before he makes the shot he frowns, stopping. He raises a hand to his ear, and my shoulders slump. I guessed that was Providence, did they want us to return so soon? I was having fun.

"I've got a level 2 threat in the vicinity." Rex explains, getting serious. "To be continued." He walks away, throwing the ball to Noah, who shakes his head.

"You can lose now, or you can lose later. Doesn't matter to me."

He passes the ball to me. I quickly throw it over my shoulder and follow them.

"Uh, in the vicinity means its near right?" I ask a little nervous, walking side by side to Noah.

"Yah but it's fine, I've been with Rex enough to know he usually takes care of these things before they get out of hand." Noah shrugs.

"Okay…" I mutter. I knew he was good. I knew that. But it still didn't mean I really wanted to face one with him. Well, I guess as long as Noah and I stayed on the sidelines and watched we'd be okay.

We follow Rex down the sidewalk until we get to a road where a crowd was starting to form. There was a Providence aircraft carrier on the road, and guard standing in a line blocking off another road.

"Why can't you just accept that I'm better then you at something?" Noah says to Rex, not letting it go.

"Shouldn't we hurry?" I cut in, eyeing the guards nervously.

"Relax, it's only level 2." Rex reassures, easily jumping over one of the blockades to the road. Noah and I stay behind.

 **CRASH!**

A sudden shot of fire bursts into the air in front of us, Noah and I jump back, arms raised above our heads.

"Oh wait…that's right. The lower the number the worst the threat…" Rex realizes.

"Are you serious?" I cry out, my eyes going wide as…something steps out of the flames. It had the shape of a person, but was brown with a large head and big red eyes.

"Now they really should change that." Rex comments. He tranforms his legs into the The Punk Busters, as he calls them. He has weird names for his machines. The…whatever spews fire at him which he blocks with his legs, but it sends him flying back to the ground, his legs reverting back to normal.

"Oh boy…" I mutter, as Noah and I watch anxiously.

The guards open fire on the thing, but it seems to have no affect.

Rex turns his left arm into the Slam Cannon. Even though this was a really freaky situation, I still had to gasp in awe at how totally awesome that looked.

The back of the gun sticks into the ground, and shoots a chunk of road at the thing, sending it flying back. A guard shoots a net at the creature, which electrocutes it. It tries to get up again, but Rex quickly runs over, and smacks it over the head with a frying pan. Uh, when the hell did he get that?

It falls to the ground and doesn't get up.

Noah and I cheer, Rex grins at us and starts to talk to one of the guards, passing him the frying pan. The guard takes off his mask, revealing a dark faced man underneath, a women guard comes up next to him, she has an ashy dark complexion.

I can't hear what they're saying. But from what I had learned about Rex with my short time with him, he was probably saying something cocky. As Noah and I walk towards Rex, and start to hear more about what they're saying I realize that the two guards are laughing at the thought of Rex surviving some boot camp they went through or something.

The two guards walk off, as Noah and I walk up to Rex.

"Hey! The next time a EVO tries to eat your brains don't come crying to me!" Rex yells after them, waving his fist in the air.

"Can you believe those guys?" He grumbles.

I shrug. I didn't know much about the guards, or they're camp. But it probably was hard. "It probably isn't easy being a guard. I bet the training is hard."

"I've seen the commercials." Noah adds. "Providence basic looks tough."

Rex gives us an annoyed stare.

"I mean," Noah says, backpedaling. "I could handle it. You guys? I don't know."

"What? If you could handle it, so could I!" I exclaim, nudging him.

Rex full on smacks him on the shoulder. "Come on, you know I'd kick your butt."

"Says the guy who's currently 0-42 against me in basketball." Noah shoots back.

"Us." I correct him, but they ignore me. Uh oh, it looked like there was some guy pride on the line here.

'Oh, is that a challenge?" Rex smirks, staring at Noah.


	3. Chapter 3

And that's how we ended up here. In basic training camp. I didn't really want to do it, but honestly everything went by so fast I found myself swept up into it with the other two. Next thing I know Rex has somehow convinced Six to let me join the two. I think it worked only because Rex said that it would be an 'educational experience.'

"Gentleman. Gentleman!" A male voice yells out, snapping Noah and Rex out of their squabble.

We turn to see a bald guy in a guard uniform, a hand on his hip, staring at us. Something was wrong with his right arm, it looked robotic.

"Welcome to basic training."

"Captain Calan tells me that you three want a taste of basic." We were being led around by this guy through the camp. Which was a bunch of buildings on this giant rock cliff in the middle of a freaking desert.

"Yeah, but not the easy version." Rex says confidently.

Actually, I think I would be okay with the easy version. I was getting nervous just looking around at the place. Especially when I saw to our right this strange giant room in the ground, the ceiling and walls were a bunch of lasers. What a strange looking place. Scattered around were soldiers minding their own business, they all stared at us as we walked by, which was nerve wracking to say the least.

"We want to be treated no different then any other caudate." Rex continues.

"Alright. All you need to know, that's where we eat." The guy points out a building on our left. "And that's where we blow stuff up." He gestures to the barren wasteland in front of 's a sudden explosion right then, the shockwave sending Noah, Rex, and I to the ground.

After showing us a few more buildings, he leads us into a room with a bunch of wannabe soldiers sitting at desks, watching a screen. Which strangely had pictures of Rex on it, fighting EVO's.

"Hey, they're studying me!" Rex whispers excitedly, throwing an arm around both Noah and I.

The instructor at the front continues to talk. "Fire team can overcome the tactual deficiency of this particular special agent.

Rex crossly takes his arm off of us.

"Very educational." Noah jokes, smirking.

I laugh a bit at Rex's annoyed look.

The other guy continues to show us around, we enter a bedroom, with a bunk bed set into the wall. "These will be your quarters for the two males. You will be in that room." He points to a door on the left for my room. Our rooms were connected.

"This must be what college is like!" I hear Rex say, as I open the door to my room, peeking in. It looked exactly like theirs. A bunk bed, one chair, and one table. There was a door on one wall that lead to the hallway.

"But with weapons!" Rex picks up a gun that was lying on his table.

"This is Cadet Kenwyn Jones" The man says, introducing us to a dark skinned girl around our age. "You have any questions ask her. I'll check back with you first thing tomorrow morning. Enjoy your stay."

And with that he walks off, Kenwyn leans against the doorway, crossing her arms.

"He was really nice." Rex comments, still holding the gun, which to be honest was making me nervous.

"He always is. On the first day." The girl says ominously.

"What's down there?" Noah asks, glancing out a window.

"Stone steps." Kenwyn answers. "They don't waste a jump jet on us when we quit. You have to walk."

I follow the guys and look out the window. The only way down this giant stone cliff was a very long stairway built into the rock.

"Fun…" I mutter. I knew it. We were going to die. Even if we quit, I was going to die just going down all those damn stairs.

"Better turn in." Kenwyn says. "The day starts early around here."

She quickly walks off, and the door slides shut. "I don't thinks he likes us…" I murmer. I head back to my room, just to hand my hoodie on a chair. I head back to the guys room, not much to do.

"I have to say, this isn't what I was expecting at all." Noah comments, taking off his jacket and sitting on the lower bunk, while Rex lies on the top. I sit in the chair.

"I know. This is going to be a piece of cake." Rex agrees.

"What? You think so?" I ask, worried.

"Oh come on Rim, it's going to be easy, at least for me." Rex says smugly.

I roll my eyes, heading back to my room to sleep. "Let's see if you can keep that attitude up for a week."

 **oOoOo**

 **CLANG CLANG CLANG**

I yelp as I jump out of bed at the sound, landing on my side. Good thing I was on the lower bunk. I hear a heavy thump next door. Too bad for Rex he was on the top. I quickly put my sneakers on and run to the door opening it, rubbing at my eyes tiredly.

Noah was rubbing his head from where he had hit it, and Rex was lying on the ground, dazed.

"It can't be morning already." Noah complains.

"12:01 AM is morning to me, let's go!" Bald guy orders.

Morning?! WHAT?!

"Piece of cake." I hiss sarcastically to Rex, as I go back into my room to change.

After we're all dressed in the soldier uniform I meet the guys in the hallway and we all head outside. We stand in a line next to other soldiers, who all look way more awake then us. Also, it's raining. Of course.

Rex yawns, leaning on Noah. Suddenly a bunch of poles come out of the ground, connected to each other and rise above our head. I watch the other soldiers and realize that they are using the poles to do pull ups.

The bald guy appears out of nowhere and screams something at us, which was hard to hear over the pounding of the rain. I think he said something like sets of four?

I jump for the poles, and miss by a foot. Noah helps me up by holding his hands together so I can place a foot and lift myself up. I smile at him in thanks, as I struggle to do a few pull-ups. Noah leaps up, grabbing on to the poles. He was having as much trouble as me with the pull up thing though, I look over at the others who are doing like twenty pull-ups a minute.

Ugh. I knew this was going to be bad but...geez!

My cheeks burn with embarrassment. I look down curiously at Rex who isn't even trying to jump up. He looks at us and then transforms his arms into the Smack Hands. He grabs a hold of the poles, when he tries to lift himself up he accidently brings the whole thing down, and everyone else with it.

I rub at my head; as for the second time that day I have found myself harshly thrown to the ground.

"That is Providence property you just abused!" Bald guy says angrily. "You three, drop and give me twenty!"

"Thanks Rex." I mutter sarcastically as I struggle in the mud. I absolutely _hate_ push ups.

Noah groans. "He's really nice." He mimics Rex's words.

Rex transforms his arms again, and easily starts doing a few pushups. I bet if _I_ had giant robot arms, I could do push ups too!

"Hey, try to keep up." He taunts.

I resist the urge to throw mud in his face. But it's tempting, oh so tempting.

"You think this is too easy?" Bald guy yells. "Make it one thousand, you three!"

"That's not happening." I mutter quietly to myself.

"Yes sir." Rex grins, doing push ups very quickly…that is until bald guy puts a boot on his head and pushes his face into the mud.

I wince in sympathy as he spits out the mud.

"No." Baldy drawls. "One thousand sit ups."

We groan and quickly get on our backs, me in the middle with Noah on my left, and Rex on my right.

"I hate you all." I say between sit-ups as I huff. At least these weren't push-ups. But now way in hell was I doing a _thousand._

Noah seemed to be doing okay but Rex…not so much. Guess he had gotten to used to relying on his robot limbs to do the work.

"What's the matter?" Baldy taunts. "Don't have a machine for that?"

"Try to keep up." Noah taunts.

Next we have to sprint with the others, holding up our guns. Which I would like to add, were heavy!

A car rushed by us, splashing us with water.

"Lovely." I grumble, imagining how nice it would be to shoot that car right now. Honestly handing guns over to a bunch of grumpy teenagers was a terrible idea.

Kenwyn runs by us, ignoring us completely.

Next up was training how to use our guns. It was daylight now, and I felt like I could collapse. Only reason I hadn't was because Noah and Rex were with me. I mean, the situation still sucked, but everything seemed a least a tiny bit better if you had a friend at your side.

Huh. I guess I was starting to think of them as friends. That's what going through sucky situations like this will do to you, you really bond.

Too bad friendship couldn't fix my aim. After nearly shooting Rex by accident ( which he was not happy about, but hey this gun was heavy to lift!) I still couldn't hit the stupid target. Noah and Rex were having the same problem.

Baldy walks by us and I eye him nervously. I was right to be scared, he suddenly throws something at us, which I realize a second later is a smoke bomb.

"RIM WATCH IT!" Noah and Rex yell as I nearly shoot them, again.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" I panic aiming the gun at the ground, and nearly shooting my foot. I quickly take my finger off the trigger, laughing sheepishly.

Then there were MORE sit-ups. Oh joy!

As we groan in pain baldy counts our push ups. "Two-twenty three, two-twenty four…"

He even yells at us in the community bathroom when we brush our teeth.

"WHERE DID YOU MAGGOTS LEARN TO BRUSH YOUR TEETH?" He yells, coming out of nowhere. Noah and Rex spit out their toothpaste in surprise, and I nearly swallow my toothbrush.

"Did you just mess up my floor?" He angrily points at the ground where the boys had spit, as I choke making strange gurgling noises.

"Pick that up and put it back in your mouth!" He orders. Noah just looks at him like he's crazy, as Rex pats me on the back hard trying to get the toothbrush out.

MORE SIT UPS.

"Nine hundred and seventy seven…nine hundred and seventy eight."

I hate my life.

Suddenly Rex stops a strange look coming over his face. I'm about to ask what's wrong when he suddenly turns to the side and barfs.

"DID YOU JUST MESS UP MY LAWN?!" Baldy roars.

I carefully inch away from poor Rex.

Next we had class inside, we sit at table two by two, so I end up next to some stranger and the other two are at the table next to me. We were supposed to be disassembling our net guns, which basically meant I try to copy everything the guy with the messy dark red hair and green eyes next to me was doing. Except that he was so freaking quick his hands were a blur and he was done before I even knew what happened. He turns to me, a smug grin on his face.

 _VERY_ bad idea to give a grumpy, tired, teenager a gun. I didn't even want to shoot the guy. I just wanted to bash his brains out.

"Can't you even disassemble a simple neroditangent grid?!" Baldy yells, bring me out of my murderous thoughts. I turn to my left and watch as Baldy shouts at Rex.

"I can do more with one hand then you can do with two extra giant fists!" Baldy roars.

Oh boy. Rex puts down his gun on the table, and leaps to his feet. "Can't you just take a break for one minute?!"

"My job is to trains soldiers. Every minute I spend with you-" He pokes Rex in the chest. " _Real_ Providence cadets are not getting the benefit of my EVO killing expertise!"

"The horror." I mutter under my breath, the guy next to me snickers. At least _somebody_ appreciates my sarcasm.

Rex accidently pushes his gun off the table, it hits the floor and shoots a net, capturing him and Noah. Me and the other guy leap out of the way as they go sailing past and get pined to a wall.

I wince as I notice the electrical current on the net, that must hurt.

The guy and all the others ignore Rex's pleas for help and laugh. I rush over to them and nervously eye the net, not sure how to get it off them. I reach out a hand , and quickly snap it back when a powerful surge of electricity shocks me.

"Ow!" I cry, cradling my hand.

"Yeah, ow! Thanks a lot Rex!" Noah groans.

I look around for any assistance. I make eye contact with baldy, who just smirks and walks out of the room. Okay, that guy was a jackass!

"You know what? This is stupid! We don't have anything to prove to him!" Rex says angrily.

I jump back when he transforms his left arm into a giant sword, cutting through the net. They fall the ground, landing on their butts in a pretty undignified manner. The others howl with laughter.

"We can be back at your place with a pizza in under a hour." Rex points out, referring to Noah's home. "What do ya say?"

"I say…thanks for saying what I've been thinking for every second since 12:01 AM." Noah agrees.

"Then what are you waiting for?" I lean down offering a hand, helping Rex up. "Let's get out of here before Baldy shows up!"

We quickly rush to our dorm rooms, change into our usual clothes, and are out the door faster then you can say pizza. I look warily at the long staircase. Right, I had forgotten about this.

"After you." Rex offers.

"Thank you, I'm thinking we should make it two pizzas." Noah says as he walks down the stairs.

"Yeah. Oh and hey, none of this is a big deal or anything but just for a future reference, you're going down first. Which just means you quit basic before I did." Rex says smugly.

I face palm. "You have got to be kidding me."

"What?!" Noah cries out, practically flying back up the stairs. "You were the one who quit first!" He points at Rex.

I back away, eyeing the two.

"No, I just said I wanted to quit first, big difference." Rex argues.

"Uh uh." Noah shakes his head. "No way am I letting you beat me at this."

I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, this wasn't going where I think it was, was it?

"I'm not quitting." Noah announces.

"Well I'm definitely not quitting!" Rex crosses his arms as they glare at each other.

"Guys! Are you serious!" I whine.

"Hey, you can go if you can't handle it." Rex shrugs.

I look at them, then back to the stairs, then back to the two hard headed idiot boys.

I groan hanging my head low. "…Fine. I'll stay. Just because if I was the only one who left, my pride would be even more bruised than my body."

"Well then you better rest up." I jump as Baldy shows up out of nowhere. How does he keep doing that?!

"Tomorrow won't be as easy."

All three of us glance at each other, horrified.

"That was easy?!" Noah cries, throwing his hands in the air.

"Compared to what's coming." Baldy states. "Tomorrow's the start of the toughest five days of Basic." He walks closer. "Oh, its pain week, maggots."

Then he walks away, leaving me to mourn the warmth and comfort of pizza at Noah's house.


	4. Chapter 4

Another rude awakening (though at least I had the sense to sleep on the lower bunk, but by the cursing I heard from Rex he hadn't) and once again we're standing in our uniforms in the cold darkness outside. At least it wasn't raining.

"If you think you can handle what's coming that means you have no idea what's coming." Baldy announces.

I could hardly form a coherent thought. Morning weren't my friend. Neither were early mornings. Or very, very early mornings, so early _they weren't even mornings._

Also, my everything hurt. All the bruises I had gotten from yesterday were competing for my attention.

"This is pain week." Baldy marches from one end of the line to the other. It took all my self control not to fall asleep right then and there on my feet. "Five solid days and nights of training with no breaks to sleep or eat."

What. The. Hell. That's impossible, I mean, doesn't two weeks off not sleeping _kill_ you? I know it was only five nights,but by then if the lack of sleep didn't kill someone _I_ was definitely going to.

"The goal," Baldy continues. "Is to see who has what it takes to be Providence." He steps closer to Rex, getting in his face. Poor Rex, Baldy loved to pick on him.

"And make the rest of you maggots quit."

I have to hand it to Rex, he was taking this well. He doesn't move, just stares straight ahead. If I was in his shoes I think I would have punched Baldy. I am not nice when I'm sleep deprived.

...Or in general...

We all enter an air ship and buckle up into our seats.I'm next to Rex who is next to Noah. As the air ship takes off baldy continues to talk. Does he ever shut up? I was actually starting to get used to his annoying voice, so much that I was starting to fall asleep again. Rex kept elbowing me to make me stay awake.

"Mechanical failure can happen anytime here in the air. You have to be prepared."

"Uh, we're not going to jump, are we?" Noah asks. _That_ makes me snap awake.

Oh _hell_ no.

"Nope." Baldy says.

I sigh in relief.

"We are."

"Come again?" I blurt out.

Suddenly I hear a strange sound at the front of the plane, and through a window at the back I see the pilot flying through the air attached to a parachute.

"Your objective, crash land this plane. See you on the ground. Hopefully" And in front of our misbelieving eyes Baldy jumps out of the plane with a parachute.

"Did he just?" Rex calls out.

"Oh my god, we're going to die." I panic, quickly unbuckling my seatbelt and getting up, my head spinning. They wouldn't just send us to die, right? They had to have a back up plan incase we actually can't land this thing correctly… but what if they don't? Oh HELL!

"Come on!" Noah takes the lead, rushing towards the pilot room, I'm fast on his heels.

I turn around to make sure Rex is behind us, when I see him grab Kenwyn who had been following us, and jump out of the plane!

I gasp and rush as close to the open hatch as I dare, looking out. I see him transform into the Boogie Pack as he brings her down to safety.

I nearly smack myself in the face. Duh! Even if they didn't have a back up plan, which I doubt, but hey knowing Baldy… Rex would be able to save everyone. Incredibly relieved to know I _probably_ wasn't going to die via horrific plane crash I quickly join Noah. The little space upfront was getting crowded, what with some other guy with us too. The wind blown my hair into my face, the glass part of the roof at the front was open; I guess that's how the pilot got out.

"Come on!" I hear Rex yell, and I turn to see him flying above us. The guy behind me stares at him in shock. Yah, I guess it is pretty crazy looking.

"I got this!"Noah yells back.

"You do?" I ask, as Rex quickly grabs the guy and flies off.

He nods. "Yah, it's got to be one of these…thing-a-magigies." He looks at the control panel with all it's flashing lights and buttons.

He pulls on a lever, which makes the plane swerve and shoot downwards making me crash to the ground. "Noah!"

"Sorry!" He calls out, fiddling with the things as I grab onto the pilot's chair, trying not to go flying out of the plane.

I look up when I hear Rex swerve in again. "Time to go!"

"No, I got it!" Noah says stubbornly.

I watch in terror as the ground get's closer and closer. "No you don't!" I argue. "This isn't the time to prove yourself Noah, not at the cost of your life!"

"I got it!" Noah repeats.

I scream as Rex grabs me around the waist and pulls me up with one arm.

"I don't got it!" Noah finally says, freaking out.

Rex grabs him with his other arm, and flies up as we watch as the plane crashes into the ground, bursting into flames.

"They were just going to let us explode?!" I angrily yell. Good, focus on the anger, that way I wouldn't focus on how _freakishly high we were_ and how if Rex accidentally dropped me…bye bye Rim.

He sets us on the ground, in front of an angry looking Baldy, Kenwyn, and that one guy. Rex's machine wing things go back into his back. I was never going to get used to how weird that was.

"So, what's a perfect score around here?" Rex asks. Wow, he really couldn't read people, could he? Baldy was _not_ happy. "You guys give out A's, or is it a more one to a hundred system?"

"Get back up there and do it again." Baldy orders.

"AGAIN?!" Noah cries out.

"We nearly got barbecued!" I growl.

"But I-" Rex tries to say but Baldy cuts him off.

"Are you going to be around every time a Providence jet blows an engine?" Baldy asks. "The goal was to learn how to safely crash land the plane. So you four are going to do it again, and again." He gestures towards a line of air crafts near us. "Until you get it _right_!"

Rex turns to Noah. "Hey, anytime you want to quit…"

Noah pushes past him and runs towards a plane. I follow behind, cursing under my breath at everything under the sun. Or well the moon technicality, seeing as it was nighttime. (NOT morning.)

Finally after a few more crashes, and Rex having to save all our butts again, we finally get the hang of it. Afterwards before we can even catch our breath we get shoved into a classroom with a bunch of tables with what looks like weird…octopuses on them?

Once again, I was the odd one out of our little three person group. Having been forced to once again be at the table next to theirs, even though each table held three people. While Kenwyn sits with them on the left, than Noah, than Rex who is nearest to me. By a horrible turn of fate I once again am assigned next to the same guy from the gun class. He gives me a wink and I glare at him.

"EVO anatomy is unpredictable." Baldy explains, walking around us. I eye the octopus looking thing nervously. It was _moving_. "During a field dissection, you have to be alert."

Honestly, it would be pretty hard _not_ to be alert. I look to my right, as Noah holds it down with one hand, and tries to cut it with the weird knife they give us.

"Blag!" Both Rex and I make noises of disgust.

Baldy looks at us, annoyed. He crosses his arms.

"It's easy darling." The guy next to me sneers, holding the knife. "You just gotta-"

"AGH!"

I jump in surprise when a blond guy in front of us get's attacked by the _thing._ It latches on to him with its tentacles, I watch in horror and disgust as he falls to the ground, struggling to get the thing off him.

Baldy walks over and easily pulls it off him, squeezing a tentacle it calms down, hanging in the air. He throws it next to the guy who backs up in horror, he stands ups, panting. Then he puts his face in his hands, and starts whimpering.

"I c-can't take it anymore!" And out he goes through the door. Poor guy.

"Another one hits the steps." Baldy proclaims. "Who's next?"

I avoid his eyes and look down at the thing. By now Noah had actually finished and was wiping the grime off his hands.

"Hey, anytime you want to quit." He claps a hand on Rex's shoulder, smirking.

I turn back to my thingy, watching as the guy next to me easily starts slicing it open. I nearly gag as translucent gunk spills out of its stomach.

"What? Can't handle it?" The guy smirks, twirling his knife.

I glare at him and pick up my knife, holding my breath I start to poke at the beast, apologizing for it's horrible demise in my head. But before I can actually do anything Baldy starts talking. Again.

"Cadet Rombauer, schedule says your up." He was barking at some guy, holding a clipboard in his hands. "Time to face the cage."

The guy salutes and walks out.

"The cage?" I repeat.

"Oh yeah, that guy is done for." The guy next to me chuckles darkly. "Come on babe, you don't want to miss this." And he runs off with a few other cadets.

"My name is _Rim_." I growl to empty air.

"What's the cage?" I hear Noah ask Rex, Rex shrugs.

We follow the others outside, back to that laser room thing I had seen before. So this was the cage. We all stand in a line, looking into the room, where the Rombauer guy faces off against this _giant_ ugly EVO thing.

"Don't!" Kenwyn pushes Rex back from the cage, when he tries to rush in. "You go down there and Rombauer hits the steps."

I can barely watch, the guy only had a small gun stick thing. Against that thing it looked like a toy. The EVO was huge, with a couple of arms, legs, tentacles, and a really weird bumpy looking head with two eyes and a mouth. It looked terrifying!

The monster thing slams a tentacle down upon him, but he runs out of the way towards a door in the wall, which was blocked by laser beams. He stands with his back to it, but something from inside grabs on to his shoulders through the gaps in-between the beams, tugging on him. He jabs the gun at it, sending an electrical current through the beast, it lets go toppling backwards.

"He's not going to die." Kenwyn tries to reassure us. "See that collar?" She points at the large collar on the giant EVO's neck.

"It restricts the EVO's strength to non lethal levels." She explains.

"Heh, fat lot of good that'll do when it smashes the guy to a pulp." The guy from before snarks.

"Shut it, Reed." Kenwyn rolls her eyes.

Oh so that was his name. Obviously he wasn't exactly the class favourite.

The EVO thing smacks the poor guy with a hand, crashing him to a wall. He falls to the ground, losing his gun. I gasp, horrified.

"You don't understand." Rex insists. "That's Weaver. I drained most of his nanites and left him down a thousand foot hole in Antarctica!"

"Say what?" I turn, horrified. He had _faced_ that thing before? Geez, one of this days I'm going to have to ask him to tell me all the crazy stuff he had done before I came along.

"And it was Providence grunts that pulled him out, at least now he's useful."

" _This_ is useful?!" I exclaim. Noah nods, grimacing as the thing get's closer and closer to the poor guy below.

Suddenly the monster grabs at it's collar, falling to the ground in pain. I guess someone had decided to stop this whole crazy thing before the guy got killed. At the side of the room I see Baldy standing in front of a door, fist having hit a button on the side of the wall. Two people in soldier uniforms rush through.

"This is the only way to really know if the cadet has what it takes." Kenwyn continues, as we watch the two soldiers drag a defeated look Rombauer through the door.

A group gathers at the top of the stairs to watch Rombauer climb down.

"Knew he couldn't make it." Reed smirks, watching him gleefully.

"Do you _try_ to be a jerk, or does it just come naturally?" I drawl.

He rolls his eyes. "Just speaking honestly."

"Yah, well, stuff it." I grumble, crossing my arms.

Next up we get assigned into groups of four, and have to drive in Providence vehicles down the cliff. There was a road carved into the stone which curved up the edge. I'm with Noah, Reed, and some other guy in a truck. Noah's driving, I'm next to him on his right, and the other two are in the back.

Behind us a little is Rex driving, Kenwyn next to him, with two other guys in the back.

"Uh, Noah, you do know how to drive, right?" I ask warily, nervously fiddling with my seatbelt.

"Yeah, yeah, I got this." Noah replies, a grin on his face.

"The last time you 'got this' a plane exploded. So excuse me if that doesn't make me feel very safe." I mutter.

"They're ahead of us!" I hear Kenwyn complain.

"Not for long!" Rex exclaims.

After he says that I feel a car hit the back of ours, sending it swerving.

"Woah!" Noah cries out, trying to get it under control so we don't go _careening off the edge of the road._

But we do, my heart jumping into my throat as we drop on to the path below us. I grab on to the door and my seat in a death grip. Behind me I can hear the two guys behind us smack into each other, Reed curses.

But the other guys cheer, as we realize that Rex's plan had backfired. We were racing to see who got _down_ the mountain the fastest.

I turn to look at Rex, and wave, sticking my tongue out. He glares at me, and I laugh. Serves him right for nearly giving me a head injury!

After we make it down the cliff in one piece, we have to hike _up_ the stupid thing. After that we head to the ranking lists on a building.

Kenwyn is in first place, or she _was_ until the board switches, making her third with two guys I don't know ahead of her.

She pushes past us angrily. Sheesh, third was definitely _not_ bad at all. I guess she was one of those people who when they got an A, they wined about not getting an A+.

"Why are you even here?" I hear her grumble as she walks off.

"What was that about?" Rex grouches.

"Kenwyn's top kick in our class." Explain some guy I don't know. I didn't know a lot of people here. "Or was. Until you crashed and burned her rank."

The guy walks off. Okay, cool. So now I felt guilty, even though I hadn't really done much anyways. Actually it was mostly Rex's fault…I think he was starting to realize this.

"Okay Rex, I'm not going to say I'm better then you." Noah starts to say, having completely missed out on that little drama scene. "I'm just going to let you read it for yourself on the board!"

I look over, Noah was 31, I was 30, and Rex was 29.

"Wow, I'm not last. That's a miracle." I remark out loud, an eyebrow raised.

But when Noah and I turn to look at Rex, he's gone.

"Hm, 30th huh? Nice, nice…" Reed swaggers over.

"What do you want?" I growl, crossing my arms. I was quickly starting to hate this guy.

He shrugs, putting his hands in his pocket. "Nothing, just wanting to congratulate you. I mean 30th place? Wow, and your little friends even got in there too, pretty good."

Noah glances over, giving us a curious look.

"Course, not as good as being in 16th place." Reed brags.

I roll my eyes. "Great, you're incredible. Are you done now?"

He laughs. "Yep, see ya sweet thing." And walks off.

"It's _RIM._ " I yell out as he disappears into the crowd.

"Sweet thing?" Noah repeats, eyebrow raised.

I shake my head. "Ugh. He's a creep. An annoying creep."

We end up back at the cage, after Rex comes back and announces that Baldy told him it was his turn to go. After we ask him about his little disappearing act he explain that Kenwyn was mad, since she was trying to return her debt to Providence for saving her families life, and we were kind of messing up her score. I feel slightly guilty, but Rex switches the subject.

"Okay, so maybe, _maybe_ you were a little better then me at some of the other stuff." Rex admits, fiddling with his gun, getting ready.

"But kicking EVO's butt is what I do for a living." He proclaims.

Noah and I just roll are eyes. I was a bit worried, but it was true Rex did do this for a living. He had faces EVO's before, so he should be fine. And if things got really hairy, he always had his powers.

Baldy is standing near us, watching Rex. I glance around and spot some guy, the same one on the plane I think, on the other side of the Cage, who was standing with Kenwyn. They were near a control panel, the guy was pressing some buttons doing who knows what.

Kenwyn presses a few buttons too. And looks up. We make eye contact, and she glares at me. I look at her, confused. Wow she really hated us.

She walks away.

We watch as the EVO enters the cage. My eyes widen as I see it's the same EVO from a couple days ago, the fire one.

"Oh, it's this guy again." Rex observes, not sounding worried at all.

"What do you know about this EVO?" Baldy asks

"I know I already kicked his butt once this week." Rex replies.

"Well, then I guess I'm going to have to find you a more suitable challenge." Baldy says.

Rex stares at him, then at Noah and me.

"You couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you."I groan.

Baldy goes off to find Kenwyn, after ordering Rex to go to the demo rotation. She was up now.

We watch as she enters the cage, her gun raised up. She glances nervously around her, and I can't help but feel sorry for her. I know that if, or really _when_ I'm going to be in that situation, I'm going to be freaking out!

She walks towards the EVO, but stops her eyes widening in surprise as smoke starts to come out of its eyes and mouth.

She quickly runs back as it shoots fire at her.

I watch in horror as it starts to spit our more fire, and suddenly the collar just explodes off it!

"Hey! This is bad!" I panic, getting as close to the cage as I dare. I quickly jump back when a bunch of fire hits something in the side of the ceiling, making the lasers malfunction and disappear.

We rush over to the guy who was frantically pushing buttons on the control panel.

"Ice that EVO!" Baldy orders, slamming a fist on the control panel.

"I can't!" The guy freaks. "The collars dead!"

I look back at Kenwyn and gasp when the EVO spits fire, landing on the panel next to another cage in the wall, accidentally releasing the same EVO from before, the big one.

"LOOK OUT!" I scream, making the other turn to look.

The big one smacks the fire EVO, sending it flying into the air, with no laser beams to stop it. The big one smashes a tentacle towards us!

We all run and the tentacle misses us but breaks the control panel, letting all the other monsters in cages lose! The force of the hit sends me flying off my feet, and I land on top of Noah and we crash to the ground.

"Sorry!" I jump off of him and start to help him up, when he glances behind me his eye wideing.

"CRAP!" Noah yells, grabbing on to my arm and practically dragging me off. I look behind me, and scream when I see the giant EVO had gotten out of the cage and was not crushing everything in it's way.

As we run I notice a group of other cadets, including Rex who charges forward, his left arm turned into a giant gun.

"Rex!" Noah yells, and we both try to run after him but Baldy stops us.

"He can handle himself, I need all of you! We still have a cadet down there!"

"But we're un-armed!" The other guy points out.

"What you are is Providence." Baldy growls, pointing a finger at his chest. "And we never leave a man behind."

If this situation weren't so freaking terrifying, I would have pointed out that the 'man' was actually a women. But I don't.

We run towards the cage as Rex distracts the large one. Baldy grabs a rope and throws it down, and quickly climbs down it into the cage. Muttering every curse word known to man, I follow him down, the others behind me.

"Form a perimeter!" Baldy orders, as Kenwyn runs towards us. "Don't let them get behind you!"

"Here they come!" Noah yells out, as the creatures get closer.

"Here!" Kenwyn passes Noah an extra stick thingy, while the other guy and I have absolutely nothing.

The guy gasps as an EVO in a suit runs at us, smacking him and me out of the way. I hit the ground hard, and look up, dazed as the fat EVO starts to climb the rope.

"Don't let them get out!" I hear Baldy yell.

I run towards the rope and start to climb it, but Baldy shoots at the top of the rope with his robot arm, making it break. I jump out of the way as the EVO comes crashing down.

Baldy runs towards it, but a lizard looking EVO comes at him from behind.

"Behind you!" I scream, but it's too late. The EVO grabs the guys robot arm in his mouth, and _rips_ it off!

Baldy yells in pain and falls to the ground, as the EVO rushes at him pining him to the ground.

"Help!" I yell, running at the thing. I kick it in the head, and it turns to me and growls.

Kenwyn runs over, leaving Noah to fight one of the things himself. She shoots the EVO with her gun, tazing it.

It falls to the ground on it's side. The other three run over, Noah and I crouch down next to Badly, and Noah feels his pulse.

"He's still breathing." He says.

"Yah, but for how long?" I mutter.

Kenwyn looks at the ripped rope, then back to us. "We need another way up.

The other guy runs to a control panel on the wall, tapping at it furiously. "The door sealed when the control panel was smashed!" He says frantically. "We got no way out!"

"Shit!" I scream as the EVO's start to charge at us.

"Come on, form a perimeter!" Noah yells, taking charge. "Don't let them get behind you."

Kenwyn tries to fire her gun, but it's out of ammo. She turns to us. "You should have left me down here."

"We're Providence." Noah proclaims. "We never leave a man behind."

"Or women." I decide to correct him.

"Or women." He agrees.

"But this is my fault, I'm the one who-" She starts to say but Noah cuts her off.

"Can we talk about it later? If there is a later…"

I hear crashing sounds from outside the cage, probably Rex. A large shadow falls over us and we look up, horrified as the big EVO starts to topple over on to us, tied up by some wire courtesy of Rex himself.

"GOOOO!" I shout as we run out of the way of the falling EVO.

It lands right between us and the other EVO's. Well, that's convenient. But now the EVO's were using it as a sort of bridge, climbing up its tail and out of the cage.

"Hurry!" I yell, Kenwyn and Noah help Baldy up and we all climb up the large EVO. We get out of the cage and my eyes widen as I spot Rex hammering the other EVO's with his Smack Hands.

I look back at Noah and Kenwyn as they put Baldy on the ground, leaning against part of the tail.

"He needs help." Kenwyn says.

"So does Rex, look!" Noah cries, and I whirl around, Rex was getting smacked around like he was a ping pong ball.

"He's too busy being hit to hit back!" Noah exclaims.

"He's right, we got to draw their fire so Rex can go on offense." Kenwyn proclaims.

"But we don't have any weapons!" The other guy points out.

"That's why we have to distract those things, so Rex can use his." Kenwyn explains. Good plan. Besides the whole, we're probably going to die thing, good plan.

"That's insane!" The guy complains.

"Maybe, but it's what Providence grunts are trained to do!" Kenwyn replies. "We do our job, so he can do his. I get it now."

I turn to look at Rex again, he has now transformed again so he's flying towards a building, but a EVO leaps up and smashes one of his wings, making him crash to the ground.

He switches to transforming his fists into the Smack Hands again, and starts pummeling it. We chase after the other EVO's who are charging at Rex.

Noah is in front, and throws his stick thing smacking a beast and making it fall on to another one.

"Nice aim." I compliment.

"Thank you."

But it seems he had just pissed them off, the two EVO's turn and run at us. Noah yells and takes off.

"Run Rim!" He yells.

"I know, I know!" I cry, backing up and quickly taking off my boots.

"What are you doing?" He screams.

"I don't know!" I yell back, throwing a boot at each of the monsters heads. It hits them, but it doesn't do much. They just roar and continue running.

"Well, that plan failed. At least their distracted." I mutter as I dive under a car, next to Noah.

One of the EVO's start smashing the side of the car with it's head, the other jumps ip and down on top of it.

"What the hell was that?!" Noah yells.

"Well excuse me, I didn't exactly have a choice of weapon! It's not like there's a bazooka lying around!" I defend myself.

Kenwyn comes to the rescue, throwing her gun at an EVO's head. They run at her, and she takes off around the corner of a building.

I see Rex run off after her, and all I hear is a lot of smashing, and EVO's squealing.

"Uh, you think he's okay?" Noah asks.

I crawl out from under the car. "He better be, come on!" I run after where Kenwyn had gone, and stop just around the corner. More cadets had shows up and were firing at an EVO. I look around and spot Kenwyn ducking behind a staircase leading to a building, and that other guy was cowering behind a building. Fat lot of help he was. Rex was fighting off an EVO that was trying to eat him for lunch.

He punches it, making it crash into a water tank above. I yell in alarm as the water comes crashing down on my head. I stand there, dripping wet hair in my face.

"Uh, sorry!" Rex calls out as he runs past.

"Yep, he's fine. But he won't be when I'm done with him." I mutter darkly as Noah comes up from behind, staring at me oddly.

"Kenwyn!" Noah cries out, and I look up in horror as a rhino looking EVO charges right at a freaked out looking Kenwyn. The thing pushes past her, practically running her over.

"No!" I run as fast as I can over to her, crouching down next to her as Rex leaps into the air, smashing the rhino EVO into the ground.

"My fault." She chokes out.

"What?" I say confused, as I try to hold up her head.

"I-I messed with the collar."

"What? Why?" I ask.

"I-" Rex shakes his head, cutting her off.

"Forget it. Sometimes when you want to be number one bad enough, it makes your brain stop working."

"What do you say we make this a tie?" Noah offers.

I groan. "Finally! Holy crap!"

Noah laughs, but Rex looks at me oddly. "Um, what happened to your shoes."

Noah starts to explain what happened but I glare at him, shutting him up. "Not a word Blondie, not a word."

Afterwards after the rest of the cadets find us and get all the EVO's back into their cages, after getting them working properly, there's a big ceremony thing. (Thankfully they had given me an extra pair of boots for the occasion) Me, plus Rex, Noah, Kenwyn, and that one guy who's name I still don't know, stand in a line on a stage as Baldy pins a medal to our chests.

"Sir." Kenwyn blurts out. "You should know I was the one who-"

Rex cuts her off. "Yah, yah we all know you were the one who saved the day by pulling all those EVO's off me. Maybe you should get two medals."

Noah and I look at each other and smile, and then look back at Kenwyn who looks confused, but then grins.

"And he I was thinking I had misjudged you." Baldy says, turning away from the podium and back to us.

"Really?" Rex asks. "You think I could hack it here?"

"Not a chance." Baldy says bluntly, he then turns to Noah. "You, maybe."

Noah grins and I nudge him. "Nice!"

"Now then, you three hit the steps!" Baldy orders.

We quickly walk off, and I make eye contact with Reed who is standing near us.

"Nice job sweet heart."

Rex looks at him oddly, Noah rolls his eyes.

"For the last time-" I growl but Baldy cuts me off. "And keep up the good work."

We share a look.

"An EVO must have hit his head or something." I mutter.

"I heard that!" Baldy shouts out, and I jump, scurrying back towards our room. We change into our usual clothes and head back to the steps. Déjà vu much.

We start to walk down the steps, together.

"You know, this has really made me appreciate all that the grunts do." Rex says.

"Yeah." Noah agrees and I nod.

"And it also made me appreciate on how I'll never do anything like this again."

I laugh. "You said it."

"I don't know." Noah pauses. "I think maybe someday, I might."

I stare at Noah in shock, before smiling. "Well, I think you'll make a great Providence agent."

He smiles sheepishly, and rubs his head. "Thanks. Five bucks I beat you guys to the bottom." He races down the stairs.

"Make it ten!" Rex laughs, and runs after him.

I groan. "Are you kidding? How can you run? My legs feel like lead!"


	5. Chapter 5

**oOoOo Two Weeks Later OoOoO**

I wake up, groaning. I had a major headache.

"Why do I feel like crap?" I wonder out loud, struggling to sit up. I was in a medical room again, but this time on my left was Bobo on a bed, and Six was also lying on a bed on my right. Six was just starting to wake up too.

Holiday enters, and smiles when she sees us. "Oh good, Rex did it."

"Huh? Rex did what? What happened?" I ask, completely bewildred.

"Can you explain?" Six asks, also confused.

"To keep the story short, a virus broke out putting every non-EVO to sleep, I can't myself awake with electrical shocks and lots of coffee. Rex and White Knight found a cure, and saved everyone, you were all asleep for nearly three days." She says all this with a straight face.

"Uh…" I try to absorb all the information suddenly thrown at me, and look over at Bobo. "Then why is he asleep? Isn't he an EVO?"

Holiday looks at him, worried. "That, I don't know. It's a mystery."

"Holiday I think a more detailed explanation is in order." Six states, getting up.

"Of course." She nods, but turns to me. "But you at least, should rest. When you fell asleep you were standing next to a table and smacked your head pretty hard when you fell. Rex had to carry you here."

I blush a little at the thought, that's embarrassing. But at least that explained my headache, and the massive bump on my head.

The two leave, Holiday only returning to bring me some food and water. I lie back down on my bed, trying to rest but failing. Pretty hard to sleep with bright lights everywhere, and when you really aren't tired after sleeping for nearly _three days_.

The door opens and a familiar brown haired guy comes rushing in.

"Rex!" I nearly leap out of bed, but wobble, a wave of dizziness crashing over me.

"Woah, careful." Rex grabs my shoulder steadying me.

I lean on him a bit and glance up. "What the hell happened?"

He brings me over to the bed and I sit down, waiting for him to explain.

He shrugs. "Pretty sure Holiday explained the important stuff, basically I had ot go running around the world trying to stop mini disasters because everyone was asleep. Then White Knight and I were forced to tag team and fight some patient zero guy, but then White Knight went all anti nanites on me, and tried to kill me. But then he got over it long enough for me to get swallowed by patient zero who was sort of EVO by then, and make him cure all the infected. Don't know why Bobo is still asleep though…"

I stare at him in utter confusion.

Holiday suddenly enters the room, and quickly walks over to Bobo. "I'm worried the virus may have activated a permanent reaction." She says.

"Permanent?" I repeat, looking at the slumbering monkey.

But to my surprise, Bobo yawns, raising a hand to his mouth. He sits up rubbing his eyes.

"Boy, those guys in the motor pool sure know how to party. Woah, how long was I out?"

Holiday and Rex stare at him in shock, then back at each other.

"And I'm starving!" Bobo complains, ignoring our looks. "Who's up for breakfast?"

Holiday shakes her head and walks off, Rex rolls his eyes and I follow them out the door.

"Good night Bobo." I hear Rex mutter as he turns off the lights. Seriously, there was a light switch and I hadn't even noticed. Nice job Rim.

 **oOoOo 1 Week Later OoOoO**

"No wait-how does-Bobo what the hell?!" I throw some wrapping paper at him and he dodges laughing.

"Aw, don't get your knickers in a twist! I think it looks gorgeous!" Bobo says, gesturing to the disaster of a wrapping job he did on my present.

"It looks like a walrus tried to wrap it!" I shoot back, quickly ripping the wrapping paper off, and trying again.

Bobo had walked in on me (he needs to learn how to knock!) trying to wrap Rex's present, but I wasn't very good, so he had decided to lend a hand. Or four, really. He had told me last week that Rex's birthday was coming up, so I had secretly gone on a shopping trip with Holiday and gotten him a gift. (Plus some badly needed clothes, the boring ones they gave me were not cutting it) I was wearing my usual blue hoodie, plus my beat up old sneakers, and a pair of jeans.

It wasn't really his birthday, he had explained. Since I had learned that Rex had amnesia, and couldn't remember anything since he was ten when he was found by Six, they used the day he came to Providence as his birthday date. It had taken forever, but I had finely found a decent gift. At least Holiday thought it was good.

After fixing up the wrapping job to the best of my ability I head to a large room where everyone was setting up a surprise party, I set my present down with the others on a table. I help set up the decorations, and blow up balloons, and Bobo runs around generally making a nuisance of himself. Though he was helpful with the streamers, able to climb up the walls and hang them there. Everyone was here, a bunch of scientists, and doctors most of who I had met by now. It was hard to tell who was who though since they all wore these big goggles.

By the time everything is set the door opens, revealing a surprised but happy looking Rex, and a normal (which means no expression) Six.

"Surprise!" We all cheer.

Bobo blows a party horn, and skates past on a skateboard, throwing confetti in the air. I jump out of the way as he nearly runs me over.

Holiday walks over to him and hands him a party hat, she drags him over towards the rest of us.

"Finally Birthday Boy, now we can get started!" I cheer.

"Birthday _Boy_? I'm sixteen now! Older then you." He points out.

Honestly Providence wasn't _completely_ sure he was sixteen, as we don't know his exact age. But it was a good guess.

"And yet you have the mentality of a three year old." I tease.

"Hey!"

I laugh, and Bobo runs by dragging a colouful piñata. It had the shape of a person, but taped on to the face was a picture of Van Kleiss, which I found hilarious.

Holiday really enjoyed it, swinging the bat around with a bandana tied around her eyes, she yells "I'll get you Van Kleiss!" She couldn't stop giggling; it was strange but nice to see Holiday act so childishly.

Bobo laughs, pulling at the rope tied to the piñata up and down, as Holiday struggled to hit it. I take sip from my cup of punch, but nearly choke when Rex scares the living daylight out of me by _smashing_ the piñata to the ground, accidently shooting Bobo up into the air.

Holiday takes off the bandana, turning to Rex, confused.

"Sorry Doc, it was taking too long." Rex explains, grabbing at some of the candy that fell out of the piñata. "It was either that or throw some of your cake at it."

I giggle into my cup as I watch Noah, who had come over for the celebration, stab at a slice of cake with his fork, not being able to make a dent.

Rex runs around, waving party hat's in the air. He runs up to me and slams it over my head; I pick it up before it falls into my cup. He laughs at my annoyed look and runs over to Six, doing the same to him.

He jumps onto a counter. "How about hitting the petting zoo for a little pin the tail on the raging rhinoceros?"

"No." Six and Holiday say at the same time.

Rex crosses his arms. "Every party has a pooper. And I got two."

The lights go out, and I grin as Rex gasps in awe as two scientists hold up a birthday cake with a question mark for a candle.

"Happy Birthday!" They cheer.

"Dudes!" Rex pumps his fists, delighted.

I watch, smiling softly. It was kind of cute to see Rex so happy.

Noah nudges me. "What are you all smiley about."

I shrug. "It's a party, why shouldn't I be?"

A little while later I watch in amusement as Rex chases after Holiday for some reason. I soon realize why when she runs up to Noah and me.

"Look! It's Rex when he was younger, the first time brought him to Providence."

The picture was of a brown haired boy giving the camera a toothy grin. He had the same jacket that Rex has now, except it was bigger for him in the picture. Wow, he had had it the whole time?

"Holiday! Stop!" Rex whines trying to grab the picture from our her hand but she dodges.

"Aw, you were so cute Rex." I tease.

He blushes and tries to grab the picture again.

"Yeah, what happened?" Noah asks.

I laugh so hard my stomach start to hurt as Rex starts to chase after Noah.

"Hey, hey I was kidding!"

Time flies by, and Bobo gets a sugar high and tries to tackle Noah and me. We scream and run out of the way as he swings by. He nearly grabs me but I throw a piece of cake at him and it dazes him. He then jumps on poor Noah and brings him to the ground, then he for some odd reason puts a paper bag over his head.

Rex was _dying_ with laughter. "H-Hold on! I gotta get a camera!" He runs out of the room.

He doesn't return for a while, and the other were a bit preoccupied trying to hold on to Bobo, I take this as a chance and grab my gift and run after him.

I find him walking down the hall, holding a _blade_.

"Uh…" I stop, staring at the blade then back to him in confusion, wondering if he'd finally gone nuts.

He laughs at my expression. "Six gave it to me as a present! He has one too."

"Oh." I nod. "Six huh? Didn't think of him as the gift type."

Rex shrugs. "Me neither. Whatcha got there?" He curiously eyes my gift.

"It's your gift." I hand it over to him and he grins. "Sorry about the wrapping job, blame Bobo."

"Nah it's fine." He tries to cut at the wrapping paper with his blade, but after nearly cutting off a finger he decides to do it the old fashion way. He puts the blade in its sheaf and puts it in his pocket, and then he rips away at the wrapping paper.

On top of a small wrapped object inside, are a bunch of movie DVDs.

"Oh sweet, Cranium Crasher 3? Night of the Walking Dead? Cowboys VS Aliens? Awesome!"

"Yeah well, I know you like horror and action, and you haven't shut up about wanting to watch those so…there you go."

"What's this?" He asks moving on to the small object.

I grin. "Open it."

Curiously he rips away at the wrapping, and his eyes widen. He holds up the miniature nanite keychain and laughs. "Oh, sweet!"

"Woah." He mutters, examining it.

I smile. "It's even blue and black! Totally fits you."

Rex laughs as he clips it to his belt buckle. "Thanks Rim, I love it." He smiles softly and I get a strange flutter in my chest. I nervously brush some hair out of my eyes. What was wrong with me?

"Uh, yeah. No problem… come on let's get back to the party." I start to turn back when I stop as I hear him cry in alarm.

"I FORGOT TO GET A CAMERA!"

I turn back just in time to see him rush down the hallway. Geez, shaking my head I smile and head back to the party.

 **oOoOo**

"Pew pew!" Rex pretends to fire a gun, talking into the intercom.

We hear Six's voice over the radio. "Keep this channel clear." He orders.

"Six, do you really expect us to get back to Providence by eight hundred hours with this slow poke convoy?" Rex asks "Just jet the cargo will ya, we'd be there by now."

Rex was up front with Bobo who was driving, while Noah and I were behind.

"Except for transporting unstable nanites which have to be kept at or below Sea level. Even one wrong bump and the whole thing could go off." Six informs us.

"And if it blows? Your in a battle transport." Rex argues. "Meanwhile, we're stuck in this delivery truck carrying whatever. What are we carrying anyway?" He looks back at us and I shrug. I had no idea. All I knew was that Rex was assigned a mission, and could actually take Noah and Bobo with him. Of course I wanted to come along too, and Six complied, as things have been a little more lax what with not spotting Breach or any sign of Kleiss's evil clubhouse for weeks.

"Toilet paper." Bobo replies.

"One, everyone in this mission has a part to play." Six lectures.

"Seriously?! Toilet paper?" Rex complains.

"And two, we're under strict radio silence. Six out."

"Radio silence. Convoy security protocol. Scheduled bathroom breaks. And they won't even let me drive." Rex lists off, crossing his arms. "So many rules, all for what? Some nanites?"

"Unstable nanites." Noah points out. "The most dangerous nanites on earth."

"Well, at least there's not a anti-tunes order." Rex reaches for the radio, and starts to fiddle with it.

"That radio's ancient, you'll be lucky to get it to play static." Noah says.

"Oh I think I can manage to crank some bass out of it." Rex says confidently.

His hand glows blue as he does his whole controlling nanite thing, soon the radio is playing extremely loud and obnoxious rock.

I groan and lean my head against the window, getting a headache. I was really regretting volunteering to tag along.

"Not bad." Comments Noah.

"What?" Yells Rex.

"I said not bad!" Noah repeats.

Suddenly the radio breaks, bursting into smoke. We all cough, and I wave a hand in front of my face trying to clear the air. The car swerves and Noah and I knock into each other.

I cry out in pain and hold my head in my hands. Yep. Definitely feeling the regret.

"Bobo slow down!" Noah yells. "We can't see anything!"

"I got one good eye that's closed half the time, now you worry?" He points out.

He stops the car and we all practically cough our lungs out. As the smoke clears I can finally see out the window…and see nothing but sand and rocks.

"And we lost the convoy…" Noah groans.

"Relax Blondie, we'll catch up." Bobo says. "That's why they invented speeding."

He pushes on a lever and we all yell as we're shoved back in our seats as the van goes flying down the road.

Minutes tick by, still no sign of the convoy. Great.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Rex says happily.

"We're lost?" Noah guesses.

"No, it means no one is around to tell me I can't drive. Hand over the wheel Bobo."

"Please don't." I beg. "I think I rather jump out right now."

"Hey, I'm a _great_ driver! I drive all the time!" Rex argues.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, when _your legs_ are the wheels, but I've never seen you drive a vehicle before, and honestly I don't want to start. Especially if I'm in it!"

"You can't drive." Bobo states.

Noah chuckles at Rex's annoyed look, as he fiddles with radio. "Radio's broken so we can't even call for help."

"We don't _need_ help." Rex raises up his hands. "We're not lost. Men don't get lost, we go exploring."

I cough, giving him a death glare.

"Okay _we_ don't get lost." Rex corrects himself. "Besides, why should you care if I drive? Unless you made some kind of deal with Six."

By now Bobo had his hands behind his head and was driving the wheel using his feet. I was seriously contemplating the jumping out of the van thing. Would I get more hurt doing that, or more hurt getting in a car crash with these idiots? Of course to get in a car crash there actually has to be other cars around, though he could accidentally hit a nearby tree or rock or something…

"You'll have to ask my bank account." Bobo replies.

Thirty minutes later and we've stopped at a gas station. Rex comes back out form the store, carrying loads of cans in both hands, bags of chips stuffed into his jacket.

"Pit stop successful!"

He climbs up and starts handing out the snacks. I grab a bag of chips and a soda, I was hungry.

I open up the bag of chips, and deflate in disappointment. "Really? Only plain kind, no BBQ?"

"Sorry, they didn't have many choices." Rex shrugs.

Noah eyes his can of pop warily. "This soda has expired."

I put my can down in disgust.

Rex takes a big gulp from his can, before saying "I know! They were practically giving it away."

"Of course they would!" I cringe, and Bobo spits out his soda. Okay, gross.

"This tastes like feet!" He complains. "And not the clean kind." He throws the can out the window.

"Fine, more for me then." Rex snags my and Noah's soda out of our hands.

"Now they must have noticed we're gone." Noah says as Rex tries to wipe the spilt soda off his hand.

"No ones going to miss a delivery truck." Rex chuckles.

Noah suddenly points out the window, where there was two pretty girls in a car. Oh brother…

The girls drive away and Noah and Rex instantly point at Bobo. "Hurry up!" They yell, startling the poor monkey.

Bobo drives up to them, and Rex leans out the window. "Ladies." He drawls. "How's it going today?"

I cross my arms and huff, rolling my eyes. Boys.

I have to peek over Noah's head out the window; the two girls look at each other then back to Rex.

"Yeah, we roll in a big truck." He brags. "Other guys may flake on you, but me and Noah, we deliver."

Bobo watches, an eyebrow raises as I inconspicuously grab a can off the floor of the truck and shake it angrily.

The two girls laugh and even Bobo pokes his head out the window, waving. With no one watching I casually put the can back on Rex's seat.

Suddenly the truck swerves, since Bobo wasn't driving, and we go careening off the road and hit a tree. I knew it.

Rex falls on to his seat, right on the can.

 **BAM!**

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a big reaction. Pop goes flying everywhere, and I duck missing most of the splash. Rex is covered in soda, smoke is everywhere. He groans out loud in disgust.

"How did that happen?" He mutters.

Bobo laughs and glances at me, I innocently scratch the back of my head not making eye contact. Ok, I hadn't meant for the can to explode that badly, but seeing Rex flirt so shamelessly... it had just made my blood boil.

Time passes as we try to figure out how to get out of this mess. Bobo is trying to figure out the map, as Rex holds up the truck with his Smack Hands, and Noah and I crawl underneath to try to figure out what went wrong.

After a few minutes of me basically prodding at a few things, as I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but I wasn't about to tell them that, I hear Bobo mutter "I think we might be lost" and throw away the map.

I glance at Rex who's looking a bit bored to be honest, I glance at his jacket. "Aren't you hot?"

He looks at me, and smirks. "Why yes, yes I am."

I roll my eyes. "I _mean_ t aren't you hot with your jacket on? And same with you Noah." I say looking beside me at Noah.

They both shrug. "The jacket looks cool." Rex states.

Noah nods in agreement.

I raise an eyebrow. "That's stupid."

"Hey, girls wear high heels and stuff even though _those_ are painful!" Noah defends

I snort. "I don't, I look like a baby giraffe, falling everywhere. It's not pretty."

Rex laughs. "I would pay to see that."

I shake my head. "Not happening."

A few more minutes go by and I stare at Rex and his large robot hands.

"What?" He asks, noticing me staring.

"How…how do you lift your machine body parts?" I ask.

"What?"

"I mean, aren't your hands too heavy for your arms to lift?" I say, re-wording the question.

"Oh, nah." He shrugs. "It feels natural."

I have another question. "And how do your clothes not get ripped when you change into the machine parts?"

"Oh yeah, how does that work?" Noah adds.

"It just does, my nanites transform the clothes too." Rex shrugs again.

Noah and I look over at each other, both with confused expressions. Rex was a mystery, in more ways then one.

Finally _something_ happens and the engine starts making strange sounds.

"I think it's working!" Rex announces excitedly.

"Woah, woah, don't put it down until we're out!" I yell out, as the truck wobbles. Noah and I quickly scurry out, covered in dust and oil. Great.

I hope back into my regular seat, but this time Noah takes the wheel, and Bobo sits next to me.

"Why does Noah get to take the wheel?" Rex whines as we drive off.

"This about it, Soda jerk." Bobo sticks his tongue out. "My mouth still tastes like week old socks."

I cringe as he pokes his tongue.

"Plus Goldie locks has a license and you don't" He points out. "But mostly the soda thing."

Rex grumbles, picking up a soda and drinking it. "Don't sweat it, who's gonna miss a truck full of toilet paper?"

"Hey I've been there, aint pretty." Bobo remarks.

Only ten minutes pass until Rex is at it again. "Noah, you've got to listen to me. Let. Me. Drive. THE TRUCK!"

"I don't know…" He mutters.

"The answer is still no." Bobo says for him.

"Alright we're back!" Noah suddenly exclaims, I look out the window.

"Oooh, more rocks!" I comment sarcastically. Everything looked the same to me.

"This is the right road!" Noah cheers.

"How can you tell?" Rex asks. "All the roads look the same out here."

"Exactly what I was thinking." I mutter, looking at Noah curiously.

Suddenly Noah yells and slams on the breaks.

"OW!" I cry out in pain as my face smacks into the back of his seat. I rub my poor nose, angrily looking up. "What the h-"

I stop when I realize what lay in front of us. A bunch of Providence planes, and trucks were smashed to pieces, burning in a pile in front of us blocking the road.

We all quickly jump out of the truck and walk towards the wreckage. Rex looks at each of us, then back at the mess a frown on his face. I keep nervously glancing behind me, this whole thing was really creeping me out.

Rex strides forwards and we follow.

"This canyon would be a perfect place to spring a ambush." Noah observes.

"The nanite transporters gone." He puts a finger on the device in his ear, trying to communicate with the others. "Six? Can you here me? Six? Providence come in…connect me to White. Now would be good."

"We're sitting ducks here…" Noah whispers, and I elbow him.

"Don't say that, I'm freaked out enough!" I hiss as he rubs his arms.

Suddenly we hear a vrooming noise, like of a vehicle.

"Quack, quack." Bobo says, turning around.


	6. Chapter 6

From behind us there's an…ice cream truck? And then out of nowhere a bunch of four wheeled motorcycles drive out from behind it. On each are a large guy with a white hockey mask, all in black.

"Uh oh…" I nervously watch as they surround us, we were trapped.

"Uh, I'll call you back." Rex says, raising a hand to his ear again.

A bunch of the masked weirdos jump out of their vehicles, and walk towards us. All wearing black and what I thought before were hockey masks were actually white masks in the shape of skulls. Delightful. A few were carrying steel pipes, or sharp objects as weapons. We were vastly outnumbered.

Walking out of the crown of goons is a tall guy with a black cape, and a red bandana wrapped around his brown hair.

"Allow me to introduce myself." He bows. "I'm Gatlocke, a struggling business man, scoundrel, okay that's a lie I'm not struggling."

...This guy was an odd one...

"Let me get to the point." He gives us a dangerous smirk, and his eyes travel over each of us before landing on me, sending shivers up my spine.

"You." He points at me. I notice Rex glance at me, tensing.

"Um…yeah?" I ask nervously.

"Are you a lady?"

I blink in surprise, and Noah makes a confused 'huh?' sound.

"Uh…yes?" I say it like it was a question. I mean I was a _girl_ not really sure if I was proper enough to be a _lady_.

He claps his hands together. "Great. Want to join my gang?"

We all stare at him like he's crazy, I don't say a word, too confused.

"Hey, what are you playing at?" Rex growls, taking a step closer his hands tightening into fists.

Gatlocke raises his hands up innocent gesture. "I'm not playing at anything. I was just speaking to my lads when I realized that I only had a group of gentleman, no ladies." He sweeps his hand behind him at the goons, who watch not saying a word.

"I thought that was such a shame, and now here I find a young damsel just for the picking."

I cringe at his choice of words. Before Rex does something….Rex like, I speak up.

"Um…no thanks."

"You sure?"

I nod vigorously. Never had I been so sure of something in my entire _life_. "Uh huh."

"What a shame." Gatlocke shakes his head in pity, then looks up. "Okay, on to my other point. Do you like rules?"

Definitely an odd one.

"Can't say I do." Rex says tensely.

"Me neither." Gatlocke agrees. "I hate them. It's why me and my men live by the Anikist code. For us there are no rules."

"Except no cursing." One of the grunts says in a scratchy voice.

Gatlocke grabs him by the head an angry look on his face, but then he glances back at us. "True. We're Anikistes. Not animals."

Oh than he really wouldn't want me to join, I'm like a sailor.

He shoves the grunt on to the ground, and marches over to Rex. "You know what I'm talking about. I feel like we have a connection." He slings an arm over Rex's shoulder. "We're practically friends."

Rex crosses his arms and gives him a death glare. Dang, he could be scary when he wants to. Gatlocke quickly takes his arm off.

"So, if you could do me a favor it would help me out a lot."

"What kind of favor?" Rex asks.

"I need you to hand me over the truck. I mean I _really_ need you to hand it over." He grins evilly. "Now."

"This truck?" Rex points at it. "It's not all that great, the radio doesn't work, one of the seats is stained with soda, and it handles like a box on wheels. At least I image it does since _someone_ won't let me drive."

He glares at Bobo, who shrugs.

Gatlocke raises up his left fist, which I now notice is actually a robot arm. Two red blades pop out of it. Noah and I glance at each other, and start slowly inching behind Rex, just in case.

"Please don't play dumb with me."

"Dumb?" Rex raises an eyebrow. "Oh see dumb is pulling a blade on _me_." He raises up his fists, and transforms them into Smack Hands. He had a point there.

Gatlocke eyes widen, and he smiles. "Ooh, I like this kid!" He snaps his fingers and his goons advance on us.

That was their mistake. Rex charges at them, smacking them into the air. "Get into the truck!" He orders, and Noah, Bobo, and I don't waste a second. I jump into my seat, and Bobo swings into the drivers seat through the window, much to Rex's disappointment. Noah climbs in next to me, and Rex climbs in.

"You're risking our lives to save a stupid truck?!" Noah exclaims.

"It's the principle." Rex replies.

We all scream in fear as Gatlocke jumps at the window, trying to claw his way in like a horror movie.

"GO!" I scream and Bobo pushes on the pedal.

I hear clambering outside as Gatlocke get's thrown off the truck. The truck swerves widely as Bobo tries to get it under control, trying to turn it towards the road and not the pile of burning metal. I get thrown sideways, my foot nearly kicking Noah in the face, and my upper body embarrassingly lands in Rex's lap. He glances down at me surprised, as I angrily blush.

"Bobo!"

"Sorry, sorry!" He yells, tugging at the wheel.

I jump off Rex and practically leap at my seat.

Rex looks back at me, but something in the side view mirror catches his eye. "Woah, they really want that toilet paper."

"They didn't exactly look like poster boys for good hygiene." Bobo points out.

"Why would they want toilet paper so badly?" I ask, confused.

"Are you sure that's what we're carrying?" Noah looks around at us, and my eyes widen. "I mean, did anyone bother to check?"

We all look over at Bobo. "Don't bother me with the details."

We look at each other, then Noah and I turn, pulling open the little window at the back. We peak through the little space and...

"That's definitely not TP…" Noah mutters.

In the back of the truck was a weird machine, with a panel that was blinking red. Written on the panel were the words WARNING flashing in red.

"We were carrying unstable nanites the whole time." Rex realizes.

"I can't believe it hadn't exploded by now!" I exclaim.

"We should be fine as long as none of the warning lights are on." Bobo calls out.

We look back through the window, they're four buttons on the control panel, one was blinking.

"You mean all the red, blinky ones?" Noah asks.

"Oh boy…" I hear Bobo mutter, as I slump in my seat, gulping.

"We're going to explode." I mutter out loud, and turn to Rex. "Why is it every time I hang with you, we nearly explode?"

"What?" He yells. "Name one other time!"

"Well there was the time at Providence camp with the airplanes." Noah remarks.

"I saved your butts!" Rex argues.

"My butt wouldn't have _needed_ saving if you guys hadn't suddenly had a whole man pride contest!" I argue back.

"It wasn't a-" They both start to say, but turn to look at each other, then back to me. "Okay. Maybe it was."

"Why would they give us the nanites anyways? What was Six thinking?" Rex wonders.

"He was thinking that if the convoy was to get attacked, it would be better to have the cargo with you." Bobo theorizes.

"Could have at least told us we were carrying something that could blow up." Rex mutters.

"I guess he thought that if it did blow up, you could get us out in time." I interject.

"How could I be faster then a explosion?" Rex asks.

"Maybe you could sense the unstable nanites before they go nuclear? I don't know." I shrug. "Ask Six."

We hit a rock or something, and the two guys hit their heads against the ceiling. As they groan in pain I check on the nanites, and my eyes widen as the blinking light starts to blink even faster.

"This isn't good." I mumble.

"Glad I'm not driving." Rex mutters.

A few minutes pass and Noah suddenly cries out. "They're gaining on us!"

I stick my head out of the window, and quickly duck as bullet fire rains down right where my head was. Behind us was the whole crazy group, plus the ice cream truck.

"Let me take the nanites and zoom out of here." Rex offers.

"Didn't you hear Six? They can't go above sea level." Noah points out. "One wrong bump will make them go off."

"Kids right." Bobo agrees. "They're safer in the ice freezer back there."

"Alright fine. Then we'll just deal with the road hogs ourselves." Rex announces.

"So…any idea on that?" Noah asks.

"I vote try not to die." Bobo offers.

"I second that." I raise a hand in the air.

To my horror when I glance out the window I spot Gatlocke riding on a car with another guy, side by side with us.

He grins and raises his arm, the two red blades shooting out of it. He pops a back tire and we all yell as we swerve off the road and around a bunch of boulders. We all fall to the side, Noah falling on me, and Rex falling on him.

Ow.

Then the car falls to the ground on it's other side, and suddenly Rex is squished against the window with Noah and I on top of him.

I see smoke billowing past the window, and Noah pushes on me. I kick out the door and hop out, collapsing onto the ground. The others jump out too.

"You okay?" Rex asks, giving me a hand and pulling me up.

"Just peachy." I answer sarcastically.

Gatlocke walks towards us, a smug grin on his face.

"Look on the bright side." Rex says. "The unstable nanites didn't go off."

I cringe, just in case Rex had jinxed us. Incredibly, nothing happens.

"That's what I love." Gatlocke gushes, his goons gathering behind him. "An optimist."

He takes a few steps closer and we all tense, but are not prepared for when Gatlocke suddenly throw his arms around Rex in a hug.

Noah and look at each other, then quickly take a few steps back in case he decides to spread the love.

"I love this kid!" He coos.

Rex easily pushes him off. "You're insane, do you realize that?"

"Me? Gatlocke? Insane? Frankly I don't see it."

"Than you must be blind." I cross my arms, and Gatlocke laughs, coming closer again.

"Just let me have 'em, I'll split the money with you down the middle. Fifty, fourty?"

"Wow, after all that you're nothing but a common thief." Rex snarks.

Gatlocke's eyes widen. I think he struck a nerve. "Common?" He repeats. "Common?!" He whirls around to his goons. "Tear open the truck!"

They gather around it, as a little guy breaks it open with a crowbar. They enter, and suddenly start muttering to each other, and one calls out. "its no here."

I look at the others in confusion, Noah and Bobo looked confused, but Rex…not so much.

Gatlocke marches towards the truck and hops in.

The three of us glance at Rex, who smirks and runs off. We follow. But we barley make it ten steps before a car skids to a stop, blocking our path.

"That was some escape plan." Noah says sarcastically.

"It was one of my plans." Rex explains as we back up as the goon steps out of the vehicle, holding a gun. "I have a couple different angles I'm working."

I turn to look behind us, where Gatlocke and his goons are getting closer

"What's your angle now?" Noah asks, as he glances around us.

"Yes, do tell." I mutter.

"I got the unstable nanites right here!" Rex announces, reaching underneath his jacket.

"What?!" I take a step back from Rex and Bobo groans.

"Well, this is an improvement…"

"Back off, or I'll send us all to kingdom come!" Rex pulls out his arm, raising it into air. I look at what he's holding closely, that wasn't unstable nanites…that was….

"You wouldn't dare." Gatlocke growls.

"Or would I?" Rex smirks as some of the goons begin to back away. "You say we're a lot alike."

"You would." Gatlocke mutters.

He throws the can of soda at the ground, and it sprays soda everywhere. The gang run, jumping behind trucks and rocks for shelter.

We chase after Rex as he runs towards a car, but Noah hops into the drivers seat first, Bobo right beside him. There were no more empty seats.

Rex lets out a disappointed sigh as they race off.

"Uh…" I stare after them, confused. What the hell was I supposed to do?

"Hop on!" I hear Rex call out, and I turn to see him next to me, his legs transformed into the Rex Ride.

Having deju vu from the time I went with him on a tour of Providence, I jump on, clutching to his waist from behind.

"You're going to be left behind, Gatlocke!" Rex teases as we speed off. I tighten my hold, my face pressed against his back as my eyes scrunch close.

"Can you not piss off the crazy guy trying to kill us?" I mutter.

"He's not trying to kill us, he's just trying to steal unstable nanites."

"Oh that makes everything better!"

We soon catch up to the others, riding side by side.

"We're clear." Rex states. "Now aren't you glad about the soda?"

I scream as a sudden beam shoots out at us, hitting the ground in front

of us and sending a wave of gravel down on our heads.

I look behind me and spot Gatlocke standing on top of a truck, getting closer and closer.

"Bobo, take the nanites." Rex shoves the can towards him, the actual can.

Bobo grabs it carefully, but nearly drops it, and gives us a sheepish smile.

"I'll keep them off your tail." Rex says

"Say what?" I yelp.

"Don't worry, I'll do it alone." He hovers beside their car, and I jump over, landing right in the middle of Noah and Bobo.

He zooms off and I struggle to sit up, squished between Noah and Bobo.

"Oh no, this is perfect, just ignore the fact that I have _highly_ _dangerous unstable nanites in my hands_!" Bobo gripes as I nearly accidentally hit the container.

I try to twist around to watch Rex fight. He smashes into a few vehicles, sending them off the road. He then races right at Gatlocke, transforming his legs back to normal he leaps into the air right towards him. Gatlocke shoots a laser beam at him from his robot hand, and he flips in _mid air_ and dodges, flying over his head and landing on his feet on the truck, not a scratch on him.

My jaw drops. "Th-that was really cool." I murmur in awe.

Bobo snorts. "Hero Boy will be happy to hear that."

"What? What's happening?" Noah asks, trying to look behind him and at the road at the same time.

Rex transforms his hands into Smack Hands, and charges at Gatlocke, blocking his bullets shooting from his arm. Rex grabs him with his giant hand, but Gatlocke swipes at his arm with his blade, cutting it off. They seem to be shouting stuff at each other but I can't hear what they're saying.

Rex instantly transforms back to normal, and Gatlocke uses that moment to strike him, sending him flying over the edge of the truck.

I gasp, raising a hand to my mouth as I watch Rex grab on to the edge of the truck at the last second.

"What?!" Noah cries out.

I don't answer, my eyes widening as he kicks the driver, making the truck start swerving crazily. He climbs on top of the truck, transforming his left arm into a large orange sword. I think it was called the Big Fat Sword. Wow. Creative.

"He's like a-a-a ninja or something!" I yell.

"I want to see!" Noah whines.

"Pff, it's nothing too fancy." Bobo mutters.

Gatlocke swings his swords down on Rex's head, and he lifts his to block it. He get's pushed back closer to the edge of the truck. Gatlocke swipes at his head and he ducks, rolling past him.

Gatlocke keeps swiping at Rex, putting him on the defense as he tries to block all his attacks. Gatlocke leaps over him and kicks him in the back, making him stumble forwards.

Noah glances down and notices the object near him in the car. "A radio!" he grabs it and lifts it up to his mouth. "Help? Can anyone hear me? We need a little help here! Anyone?"

Bobo leans over, swiping it. "Give me that." He yells into the radio. "Frank a 91 good neighbor, this is Bobo Haha dropping a hammer into a super skate. We got bumper stickers on our donkey, repeat bumper stickers on our donkey."

"What?" I blurt out.

"Come on back." Bobo continues to talk.

"Oh like that helps." Noah remarks. "Is that even English?'

We duck as an arrow shoots by and I look behind me and see a two guy coming up behind us in a car, one with a crossbow.

"STEP ON IT!" I yell. "I don't want to be turned into a pin cushion!"

"I got it." Bobo rips the side mirror off, which was in a triangle shape. He whips it at the wheel of the car and it pops, sending one of the men tumbling off and the other swerving as he tried to control the car. He leaps out of the car as it tumbles sideways and explodes.

"Woah! Nice Bobo!" I cheer, and we high five.

"How's Rex doing?" Noah asks and I turn around to look, but I can only see the ice cream truck and a few other cars.

"I don't where he is! I can't see the truck!"

 **oOoOo Rex's POV OoOoO**

"Anyway I could persuade you to join? You could live the life! No one telling you what to do…" Gatlocke keeps talking as I block a strike from his blades with my own sword.

"Can you just shut up for more than one second?!" I yell.

I strike at him and he blocks by blade, pushing me back.

"How long was that?"

I had lost sight of the others a few minutes ago when we had gone around a corner of a boulder. I hope they were alright, but I knew they could handle themselves.

He rushes at me and I block his sword, but I was getting closer and closer to the edge. "You can pretend to be better, but you're just like me!" He pushes me, making me stumble and fall over the edge of the truck on to the driver's roof. I tumble off and nearly fall to the ground but I stick my sword into the truck, holding on.

I look behind me and see that we're getting closer to a canyon up ahead, his just keeps on getting better and better.

I look up and see him standing above me, watching with that crazy grin on his face. "If you join, I'll even spare your friends, even your girlfriend. Aren't I nice?"

"Wh- she's not my girlfriend!" I say angrily, my cheeks heating up.

"Oh?" He looked honestly surprised. "Pity."

I growl. This guy was pissing me off. "There's a big difference between you and me."

"And that is?"

I grin. "You can't fly."

He looks confused, and then his eyes widen as he realizes that we're getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. In the corner of my eye I notice the driver jump out of the truck, rolling in the dirt.

The truck goes flying off the edge, and I transform and fly out of there as it explodes behind me when it hits the ground. I have no time to check the damage; I had to get to the others.

 **oOoO Rim's POV oOoO**

"Oh crap!" I yell as another truck with a driver and a guy holding a crossbow come up to us.

The man points the crossbow right at Noah's face and he cringes away. But before he can shoot a beam hits their car, sending the two men sailing into the air.

We all turn and see in front of us a whole fleet of Providence jets, and trucks coming towards us.

"You took your time!" I yell out at them. We had nearly died like, ten times in the last five minutes!

Noah stops the car in front of one of the trucks where Six and a couple Providence agents were inside. As we're getting gout Rex comes flying in. I smile, feeling relieved. Of course he was okay, he's Rex.

"You guys alright?" He asks, dropping to the ground, transforming back to normal.

I nod. "Well, we're alive so there's that."

Six steps out of the truck. "We intercepted your transmission on the citizens band."

My jaw drops. "You could understand him?!" I cry, pointing at Bobo.

Bobo elbows me and Noah. "See I told ya!"

"Where are the nanites?" Six asks, getting straight to business.

"Oh you mean the unstable nanites that you refrained from telling us that we had, instead making us believe that it was toilet paper, that way when a crazy gang of nut cases attacked us we were completely unprepared and confused? Those nanites?" I cross my arms and glare at him.

My sass was off the charts!

Six raises an eyebrow. Bobo grabs the canister from the car and passes it over.

"We thought for sure it was going to go off." Noah remarks.

Six looks down at the canister, then back to us. "It went off."

"What?" I ask as Six throws the canister to Rex.

"But you said one wrong bump and it would blow up!" Rex says, confused as I was.

"I said one wrong bump and it would go off. As in, deactivate."

"…Oh my god…" I lower my head into my hands, not sure whether to laugh, or to cry.

Rex and Noah stare at him with shocked faces.

"They call them unstable for a reason, if it was going to blow up I would have said so."

Noah shakes his head in disbelief.

"At least you kept it from falling into the wrong hands."

"The wrong hands he says?"

I recognized that voice. Oh no, we turn to our left and see Gatlocke climbing over the edge of the canyon.

"I'm in a terrible rush." He continues, one of his arms were ripped off, the other looked hurt. He had robot arms though, thankfully or that would be pretty gruesome to see.

"The nanites, pretty please." He points his other good arm at Rex, laser cannon ready to fire.

"All yours." Rex throws it. "They're worthless." The canister lands at Gatlocke's feet, he looks at them in shock, then he looks at us anger clear on his face.

He loses it. "AGH!" He roars and charges.

Noah and me jump back as Rex transforms his fists into a bigger machine version, and punches him in the face into the ground.

It's a pretty stupid idea to try to rush at the guy whose body can be changed into a weapon. Just saying.

Gatlocke looks up from the ground. "Let's call it a tie." Two Providence guards lift him up and start dragging him off as he continues to babble.

"We can finish our conversation later, I'll even convince your girlfriend to join!"

"HUH?" I glance at Rex in confusion, my face going red. Did he mean me?!

Rex face looks like a tomato as he rubs the back of his head, ignoring everyone's startled looks. "Um, he's crazy, ignore him."

"White Knight will want you back at headquarters for debriefing." Six interjects.

Rex glances at Noah, and then they look back at the car and races for it. But surprisingly Six jumps into the drivers seat.

"Aren't you going to give us a lift?" Rex asks.

"Drive yourself." Six says curtly, and speeds off creating a cloud of smoke.

The only other vehicle around was the stupid ice cream truck.

"I hate it when Six tries to be funny." Noah groans.

For once, Rex got to drive. There were three seats up front, and one in the back. I was between Noah and Rex, and Bobo got stuck in the back.

"The monkey should be driving." Bobo growls.

"You know, now that I'm doing the driving, this truck aint so bad." Rex chuckles. Well, that was until we reach a intersection with two roads heading in two complete different directions.

"Which way?" Noah asks.

Bobo points to the right. "They went that way. Back to headquarters."

Rex swerves the truck (making me and Noah bonk heads, thanks Rex.) on to the other road.

"You're going to get us lost." Noah complains, while rubbing at his head.

"Men-" I glare at Rex.

" _We_ don't get lost, we go exploring."


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks everyone for all the reviews, follows, and favourites! Here is an extra long chapter.**

 **oOoOo Two Weeks Later oOoOo**

"Come on, who's going to even know?" Rex whines.

"Yeah it would only be for a minute or two." Noah adds.

"Please?" I clasp my hands together. "Just for a little bit?"

The blond guy in front of us with the scar over his eye did not look happy. "You actually want me to let you fly the keep?"

Yep, we were on the keep. This giant air ship, and were bored out of our minds. So, Rex decided that we should try to _fly_ the thing. I actually really wanted to, too. That would be so cool!

We all nod.

The blond guy sighs. "Only until the next course change."

I fist pump. "Thanks! You rock!"

Noah and Rex rush over to the pilot's chair, and start doing rock paper scissors to see who gets to fly. Rex wins with rock.

"I call after Rex!" I shout.

"What?" Noah cries.

"You heard her, your last Noah." Rex laughs.

"Aw man!" Noah groans.

Rex hops into the chair. "Alright, let's see what this baby can really do."

He's about to press a button when we hear a loud thump noise and red lights start flashing as we hear an alarm bell go off.

The two blondies glare down at Rex.

"Wow, you messed up in less then a second. New record." I mutter.

"Wh-it wasn't me!" Rex cries. "Seriously!"

The ship suddenly tilts and me and Noah go crashing on to Rex, who is pinned against the control panel. "Guy's get off!"

"What the hell?!" I scream, trying to get up.

"Calan, what's your status?" White Knight appears on the large screen.

I cross my arms, I had known about the guy from Rex and how he was the only person with no nanites in the world. Yah, I know most people didn't know that, but after spending a few weeks here I had found out pretty fast from accidently walking in on a conversation with Rex and Holiday. Honestly though, I had had my suspicions because of personal experience.

Anyways, I didn't like the guy very much, he seemed snobby. I liked him even less after the whole metal eating bug incident when Rex told Knight had tried to _kill_ him. Also, he didn't like me either. Said I was a _waste_ of resources. Six and Holiday had convinced him to let me stay by saying I couldn't possible return home yet, and that I was a help to Rex by providing support from someone his age which was apparently beneficial.

"Came from out of nowhere." He tells him, as Holiday runs into the room. "We're being boarded." He turns to a soldier. "Scramble all jump jets! Mobilize for counter offensive!"

"This a coordinated attack." White Knight interjects. "Every major Providence outpost around the globe has been hit."

"Oh no…" I whisper.

Rex's hands clench. "Are they really that stupid? Attacking the keep with _me_ on board? This should only take a minute." And he runs out of the room.

"Wait!" I yell, rushing after him.

"Rim!" I turn around and nearly get smacked in the face when Noah throws me a gun that he got from the wall, he was holding his own.

We chase after Rex. Honestly I don't know if being near Rex is the safest, or most dangerous place to be.

We catch up with him and run down the halls, but suddenly the lights turn off. Suddenly I hear a weird clicking sound.

"Um, guys, do you hear that?" I whisper.

"Yep, I also see it." Rex mutters.

I turn around and see a bunch of EVO's handing off the walls.

Noah and I start shooting while Rex tries to hit them with his giant machine fists, easily clearing them out of the way.

"Again with the smack hands?" Noah groans. "You always open with that move. Change it up a little."

I glance at him, an eyebrow raised. "Is it seriously the time for this?"

He shrugs. "Just saying."

Suddenly EVO's come pouring out of the hole Rex just created in the wall and run up his fist towards us. Noah and I start shooting again but they leap at us.

"WOAH!" We scream and jump back but suddenly there's a large BANG and they get blown off us.

We turn to see Bobo behind us, holding a large gun. "You see what you get?" He throws the weapon to the side. "That's what happens when you interrupt my nap!"

"Bobo get's cranky!" He yells, grabbing two small pistols from his back and firing them off.

"I learned that the hard way too." Rex says as we get up.

He rushes past Bobo, pushing him back and changes his hand into a sword. He starts swinging it at the EVO's.

Suddenly a voice over the intercom starts speaking. "All hands on deck we've got intruders on level 4, 5, and 6. Get off our ship!"

A group of Providence soldiers come rushing through the hallway and we get out of the way.

We look around the corner of the hallway at Rex, who is still fighting off EVO's. "Go!" He cries.

"Attention Providence." A voice I had never heard before says over the intercom.

"Van Kleiss." Noah mutters darkly. My eyes widen, oh crap, I had heard so much about this guy. All bad things.

"The ship is ours." He announces.

We run around the corner, and I hear Rex yell "Not even close, Van Kleiss!"

I really didn't want to leave him, but he could handle himself, we would probably get in the way. Besides we had to keep moving.

…But still…

"Lay down your weapons and your lives will be spared." Kleiss continues.

"Yah right." I mutter.

"Continue to resist, and nothing survives."

I watch as Noah and Bobo keep moving, but I slow down, looking back. Rex would be okay…he could handle it…

But what if he couldn't?

"Ah shit!" I curse and take off running back in the direction we had left him. I run into the hallway, my gun raised and find unconscious EVO's everywhere. As I continue running I find the hallway blocked by rubble, but up above I see a hole ripped into the ceiling, and I hear Rex's voice.

"If you want my monkey you can forget it!"

I had no idea what kind of weird situation he had gotten himself into, but I wasn't about to just ditch him. I crawl up on top of some of the rubble, and put the strap on the gun around my shoulder so I have both hands free. I look up at the hole and clench my hands, then jump.

I hiss in pain as my hands grip on to the sharp edges of the hole, but slowly I pull myself up. Half of my body was out of the hole, when I spot Rex being held up by his shirt by some guy with long black hair, though he had two white streaks in them near the front. Some monster thing was holding his hands behind his back.

Rex groans in pain as the wacko's hand glows yellow. I had no idea what he was doing to him, I didn't care. All I knew was that it was hurting Rex, and that's a big no no in my book.

I don't waste any time, I pull myself up and run at the guy with the bad hair. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM!" I growl leaping at him.

I tackle the surprised guy to the ground. He glares at me and shoves me off him. I lunge at him again but the monster EVO thing grabs on to my waist with his creepy claw hands, holding me back.

"Rim?!" Rex says, shocked. He tries to punch the EVO with his fists but…they don't transform. He looks confused and jumps, trying to transform his legs, nothing happens.

The monster thing grabs him around the chest, pining his arms to his side with one hand. I beat on the things arm with my fists, but it does nothing.

"You'll find using your powers as something of a challenge." Guy with bad hair states. "The nanites that make you so special belong to me now."

"You can do that? Wait…you must be Van Kleiss!" I shout.

He turns to me, an eyebrow raised. "You know me child, but I do not know you."

I hear a snarl, and I notice that behind Van was another two EVO's, plus that crazy chick from before! Wonder if she remembers me.

"You!" She growls.

Yep, she remembers me.

"Hm?" Kleiss looks back and forth between us. "Oh, you must be that 'spy.'"

"What should I do with them master?" Creepy claw hands asks.

"I do not care about the girl, and I have everything I need from Rex. I could care less." He starts to walk away. "Secure the rest of the ship."

The EVO carries us down a hallway. "Why did you come back?" Rex asks, sounding angry. "I had it under control, I didn't need help."

I snort. "Didn't look that way. And excuse me for caring mister!"

He shakes his head. "Now your going to be hurt too."

"Not hurt." The monster growls. "Worse."

"Yippee." I mutter sarcastically as he reaches a bay door, opening it.

He lifts us both upside down by our legs and we sway in the breeze, below us was a loooong drop to the ground where there were clusters of mountains.

I gulp, did I mention I wasn't a fan of heights?

"Come on, do you really think throwing us out this hatch is the best way to get rid of us?" Rex asks. "Wouldn't it be more fun to throw us in a cage, tie me down in front of a laser?"

"No." It replies.

Rex glances at me, then back to the EVO. "Can you at least spare her? She hardly has anything to do with this, besides spilling coffee on Breach. Van Kleiss wanted to destroy me, not her."

If I wasn't a bit preoccupied about trying not to vomit out of fear, I would have felt really touched at his attempts to save my life.

"No." It repeats and unceremoniously throws us out the hatch.

We scream as we fall through the sky flipping over and over, Rex tries to grab my hand but I'm spinning out of control. I really was going to be sick.

I spot a small black aircraft shooting towards us, yes!

"Happen to notice that ground coming up on us doc!" Rex yells, I guess that he was speaking to her using the communicator in his ear.

"You don't do something fast we're about to become part of it!"

The airship flies underneath us, and a top hatch opens. Rex finally grabs onto me, well really my foot, and we go tumbling into the plane.

We cry out in pain as we hit the floor hard, tumbling over and over. I land on top of Rex, spread-eagled across him.

"Ow…"

"You guys okay?" Holiday asks, Noah and her were sitting with their seatbelts on in the chairs on the wall.

"I think I just broke my everything." I mutter trying to lift myself up.

"Dido." Rex nods he tries to get up to fast and we bonk heads.

"OW!" We collapse on our backs again.

"We have a problem." He mutters, looking at the others.

As we fly back to headquarters Rex explains how Van Kleiss took his nanites, which horrifies the two. Then he points at me and tells them how I 'crazily endangered myself' to which I defended myself saying I saw that crazy fruit loop hurting you, so I attacked.

Noah had laughed at the 'crazy fruit loop' comment, but Holiday and Rex were not happy.

Sheesh, try to help a guy…

 **oOoOo**

I nervously pace around the lab at headquarter as Holiday scans Rex in this big machine thingy. Six was nearby talking to White Knight on a screen, explaining to him that the key was stolen. I wince as White Knight rants, glad I wasn't Six.

Finally Rex slides out of the machine thingy. "They're gone, aren't they?" He asks glumly. "Van Kleiss took all my active nanites."

"Not exactly." Holiday mutters, poking some buttons on a control panel.

"I found this." She explains, a picture of a strange looking nanite shown on a screen next to Rex. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Molecular scans seems to indicate it's some kind of control nanite."

"But with nothing to control." Rex grumbles. I hand him his jacket, and he puts it on, but doesn't say anything.

I frown. He had been given me the cold shoulder since we got back. I know he still wasn't happy with me helping, but _seriously._

"With a large enough concentration of nanites we might be able to jump start it. But even with that, there's no guarantee it would replicate or even give you back the same abilities."

She sighs, frustrated. "I hate to say it, but this one has me stumped."

"Great, loving this." Rex groans. I raise a hand to muffle my laugh.

"If you're finished with the lost cause." Man I hate that Knight guy. "We've got a bigger problem." Knight says, showing video feed from outside, of the key heading towards us.

The building shakes as the key smashes into it. I lean on a machine as Knight barks orders about clearing the hallways and defending important areas.

"They will not take this base." He declares before turning off.

"Well maybe if you came out and helped…" I grumble. He totally could, he had that suit thing he used when 'helping' Rex with the virus.

Rex marches towards the door, and turns back to us. "Well, what are you waiting for, let's go stop them!"

"Rex your in no condition to fight." Holiday points out.

"Well what do you expect me to do? Hide?"

"Whatever it takes." She states walking towards him. "That nanite inside you might be able to bring you back, but it's going to take me time to figure out how."

The building rumbles again, and I nervously glance around.

"And that's not something we have a lot of right now." Holiday adds.

Noah and Bobo walk out of a door, wearing Providence gear and uniforms. Bobo had his two pistols on his back, and Noah was holding two white backpacks.

"Wow, nice outfit." Rex comments.

"Got some for you guys too." Noah throws the bags and we each catch one.

"Sweet." I mutter.

"You get to armor up like the rest of us normales." Noah teases Rex.

"Come on." Rex walks through the doors. Guess he was taking the 'being a normal' thing hard. Though I would too if I lost my crazy cool machine powers, I hope he gets them back.

After changing we rush on to a small aircraft, Bobo driving. We fly off.

"Alright, where to?" Bobo asks, he was at the front so we communicated by a screen on the wall. I was sitting in the chairs by the wall between Noah and Rex.

"South Pacific." Rex answers. I raise an eyebrow. Why there?

"That's my boy." Bobo chuckles. "And here I thought you'd try to pull some hero stunt."

Rex just smirks.

Bobo frowns. "Oh brother." The screen goes black.

An hour or so passes in silence and I sigh, slouching.

"So…" Noah begins, trying to make conversation. It was kind of frosty in here.

"The weather…it's nice."

I turn to him a 'are you kidding me' look on my face. He grimaces and shrugs, looking at Rex. I glance at the guy, he's slouched forwards, elbows on his knees. He's glaring at the floor like it's the root of all his problems.

I also grimace, and try to help the conversation along. "Um, yeah. Sunny."

There we go ladies and gentleman, my wonderful social skills at work.

"Uh huh." Noah nods, and then there's awkward silence. This was going well.

"So…what's your favourite colour?" I ask.

"Uh, green. Yours?"

"Blue, dark blue."

Noah nods. "Nice, nice."

Rex doesn't look up.

Noah and I glance at each other. I mouth at him 'do something!' Noah flounders, trying to think of something to say.

"Uh so…you…tackled Van Kleiss. That's cool."

Wow. Way to pick a heavy topic Noah.

I nod. "Yeah, I did. He has weird hair. Part of it is white, what's up with that?"

Noah laughs. "Right?"

"It's not funny!"

We both jump at the sudden yell and Noah smacks his head on the back of the chair. I turn to Rex, eyes wide, as Noah curses under his breath, clutching at his head.

"Um…"

"It's not." Rex repeats sternly, staring at me in a kind of scary angry way. I had seen him like this before, but usually against jerks like Gatlocke, never me.

"It kind of is, I mean, have you seen his hair?" Noah says, trying to lighten the mood as he rubs the back of his head.

Rex glares at us. "I'm not talking about his hair! How can you joke about that situation? Rim, you nearly died!"

My eyebrows raise. "Yeah, I know. I was there. It was scary, but hey, we're alive so…"

"You shouldn't have come after me." Rex crosses his arms.

My eyes narrow, I was starting to get mad. I also cross my arms, mirroring him. "I've already explained this, I felt guilty about leaving you behind and was just going to check up to see you were still alive and kicking, then I see that giant hole in the ceiling and hear your voice…what was I supposed to do? Leave you to fight them off by yourself?!"

"Yes…no! Ugh, I don't know!" Rex groans, frustrated. "Point is, I didn't have my powers. I couldn't protect you. What if Noah and Holiday hadn't flown in? We would both be dead, you can't just rush into a situation like that-"

"I can, and I will!" I growl. By this point Noah was trying to back away from us as much as possible, but was having some trouble, what with being strapped into a chair.

"I'm not going to-no, I will _never_ leave a friend behind in danger. Besides, you would do the same!"

"But I have- _did_ have powers, I could protect myself! You can't, not against the likes of him!" He argues, hands clenched into fists.

I lean forwards. "I don't care! I don't! I won't just run! I know I could get hurt, I _know_ that. I've been in bad situations before and gotten out of them. True, nothing as bad as Van Kleiss, but still!"

"But-"

I cut him off. "But _nothing_! Do you now know what _friendship_ is?! You want to protect me, great! But I also want to protect you too! As much as I can, even if I don't have two huge clobbering machine fists, I'll help when I can! Friends have each others back, that's how it works!"

He stares at me, his anger draining out of him. My mind finally catches up to my mouth as I register what I just said. I can feel my cheeks burning. I whip my head around to Noah, who is staring at us with eyes the size of dinner plated.

"Uh-uh, um…uh…Noah included of course. All friends." I pat him on the shoulder awkwardly. "Oh…and Bobo."

"Thanks, really feeling the love."

I actually let out a scream when we hear Bobo's voice. I turn to stare in horror at the screen, where Bobo sits, an eyebrow raised. I had been so caught up in the argument I hadn't even realized when that thing had turned on.

"Uh…how long have you been there?"

"Long enough." He states cryptically. "We've arrived, now if you two can get over your lovers quarrel and get yourself together, that would be great."

I blush like crazy, and let out this really weird high pitch nervous giggle. I unbuckle my seatbelt and practically run off the airship. "Ladies first!" I yell.

I bolt outside, and look around. We had landed in front of a large building with two large aircrafts in front of it. The landscape was pretty barren.

The others walk out. "This is a strange place for a base." Noah observes, as I raise a hand to my eye to block the bright light.

We follow Rex as he walks towards the building. "When I have to many nanites in me, this is where I go to offload."

So we were playing the 'let's pretend that last conversation never happened' game. I was fine with that.

"Think of it as a nanite port-a-potty." Bobo helpfully explains.

"Thanks for that image Bobo." Noah mutters.

We walk through the building until we get to a creepy darkish-yellow lighted room with some giant circular machine in the middle.

"Uh…what the hell is that." I ask.

"I think it stores nanites?" Noah guesses. "So…we put these nanites into Rex, and good to go?"

"No."

"Oh." Noah bows his head, I pat his back.

"Good try." I whisper.

"They're inactive." Rex continues. "Or at least stripped of their programming. Since I can't control them I have to hope that whatever this thing is inside of me can."

"So, what happens if it can't?" Noah asks.

"Let me put it this way." Bobo speaks up. "The last guy who went swimming in that soup, ended up a fifty foot freak show."

"Great." I mutter.

Rex lies down on top of this metal table that was connected to the giant circle machine thingy. On his orders Noah and I pin him to the table with two straps that go over his body, as Bobo works the control panel. A glass case slides into place above Rex, sealing him in. Noah and I watch nervously. Rex didn't looked scared, just determined.

"Okay Bobo, set the thing and then go. This doesn't work, I don't want you three getting caught in the blast."

"Nope." Bobo chimes.

"Forget it." Noah shakes his head.

"Did you not hear my big dramatic speech back there." I cross my arms. "Not leaving, not running away."

"Rex, at least think about this for a second." Noah begs. "What if it wipes your memory? What if it turns you into some kind of EVO monster?"

"My friends need me, there's nothing more to think about." As Rex says this he looks over at me. I frown; it felt like he was trying to use my own words against me. Fabulous. At least that means they got through his thick skull.

"Bobo, do it." He orders.

Bobo presses a button with his foot, and a strange whirring sound starts.

There's some flashes of light and more strange noises, I back up raising my hand sin front of my face. After a minute or two it starts to die down.

"Quick, get him out!" I shout at Bobo, as I run over the Rex, trying to open the stupid glass thing. Rex lays there, eyes closed.

"Rex? Rex?!" I pound on the glass, getting desperate. I whirl around to Noah who comes running behind me.

"He isn't waking up! What do I do? What do I _DO_?!" I yell, getting desperate.

"How about calm down for starters."

I gasp and turn back, to see Rex climbing out of the thing, rubbing his head.

"REX!" I nearly knock him down as I hug him.

…

Aaaand I did something stupid and impulsive. Again. My cheeks go scarlet. Again.

I quickly let go of him, and back up smiling sheepishly. "Heh...so, you…good?"

He blinks, still looking a bit dazed, whether from the light show that just happened or the hug is yet to be debated.

"Uh, well, I guess we'll find out."

He get's into a stance and raises a fist into the air. Rex eye's narrow in concentration, and all of a sudden his fist changes into a giant machine version.

"YES!" Noah, and I cheer.

"Welcome back!" Bobo jokes, fist bumping Rex's large fist.

"Good to be back to normal." Rex smiles. "Come on, let's get to headquarters!"

We fly off in the ship as fast as we can, this time though the atmosphere was far more relaxed…as relaxed as it could be when you knew you were about to face crazy evil powerful maniacs.

We rush into the headquarters and Rex races ahead of us. We ask the few soldiers not unconscious where Kleiss is and we follow where they point. I hear a crash of shattering glass as he jumps through a window into a large room filled with screens. Noah and I go through the door instead and run on to the balcony overlooking the large room. Rex flies through the air, glass sprinkling to the floor around him as he lands on the ground perfectly fine.

Show off. That was cool, but seriously?

"Hey genius! There's something called a door!" I can't help but call out.

He ignores me, facing Van Kleiss and his EVO goons who were advancing on Six who was lying on the ground, not looking too great.

"Trying to do my job for me six?"

Six glares at Rex. He couldn't be too hurt if he could still be annoyed. Though it's pretty easy to get annoyed at Rex…

"Here's a thought." Rex continues. "When your top henchman can't even get rid of someone by throwing them out of a moving plane, time to rethink the help."

"You are determined I'll give you that." Kleiss concedes. "If it's what you prefer I'll finish you myself."

Rex's back starts glowing blue and suddenly transforms this large wheel looking thing on to his back which also glows blue, and his hand turns into a mechanical tentacle thing.

Everyone stares at him in stunned silence, even Six who slowly starts to get up.

"Well…that's new." I mutter.

Rex snaps his arm at Kleiss, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Whooo!" I cheer, waving my hands.

"Cool!" Rex yells out loud, staring at his arm.

"See, I told you it would work." Bobo interjects.

Rex charges at Kleiss, but some EVO thing with a tail chases after him. Six leaps at it, kicking it down and it crashes to the floor.

"This is an unexpected surprise." Six comments.

"Well by now you should expect the unexpected from me Six." Rex grins.

Kleiss get's up and Rex charges at him again, swinging his arm at him as Six wipes the floor with the other EVO's.

Kliess punches his golden arm at Rex, and it stretches towards him, but he swings his arm up to the ceiling on to a pipe. He swings towards Kleiss, kicking him in the face. He goes tumbling to the ground.

Noah, Bobo, and I cheer again. We were basically the cheering squad now, Six and Rex could handle this.

Rex and Kleiss exchange blows, but Rex get's the upper hand, catching him off balance as he _once again_ sends Kleiss crashing the floor.

"What's that? The third time?" I ask.

"Fourth I think." Noah replies.

"He's going to be feeling that tomorrow…" Bobo adds.

Suddenly Kleiss reaches over to a Providence agent lyon gon the floor knocked out nearby, and his hand glows. Suddenly the agent _turns_ into a EVO!

"That's…also new." I mutter nervously.

Rex dodges it's strikes, and holds him with his right hand as he uses his normal one to change him back to normal. The poor agent slumps to the ground, once again knocked out.

I look around and see no sign of a certain female scientist, I hope Holiday is okay.

Suddenly to our right there's a flash of red as Breach appears above us, putting something on the wall.

She looks at me and snarls. "Here's a little present."

"Is that…what I think it is?" Noah asks, eyes widening in horror.

She just smirks and gives us a little wave before disappearing.

"Shit." I exclaim.

The thing was a bomb, and it was beeping even faster. Thankfully Bobo comes to the rescue, climbing up the wall even faster then he did that time at Rex's party. Though this time he was trying to destroy a bomb, not put up streamers. He breaks the thing with his feet, taking out the important bits, and looks over at us.

"Not any more."

"You think they're might be more of them?" Noah asks.

"Ehhhh…probably." Bobo replies.

The fight below continues. Rex leaps off a wall, flipping in mid air and wrapping his tentacle machine arm around Kleiss before landing on the ground.

"Does he have like, a bunch of cool moves tucked away in his head to try out later, or is this all improve?" I ask.

Noah shrugs. "Eh, probably a bit of both."

Rex's arm suddenly has electricity running down it, electrocuting Kleiss who yells in pain.

Rex looks as surprised as the rest of us. The electricity dies down and Rex smirks, he tugs Kleiss towards him and with his other hand punches him in the face sending him crashing to the ground!

"Yeah!" I cheer. "Fifth time!"

"Sixth?" Noah mumbles, thinking.

Rex glances up at us, grinning, before turning back to Kleiss.

"Me thinks he's trying to impress somebody." Bobo says in a sing song voice as he swings over us.

"Course, Noah and I are impressed. What, you aren't?" I ask, looking up.

He gives me a deadpan looking before sighing. "Never mind…"

"Once again, epic fail." Rex walks towards Kleiss. "I'll take my nanites back now."

Kleiss growls at him, but suddenly there's a strange rumbling and part of the ceiling above him breaks as a giant white flying EVO crashes in. It grabs Kleiss and starts to fly off.

"Crap!" Noah cries we run towards the stairs leading to the bottom floor.

Rex transforms into the Boogie Pack but before he can take off after Kleiss Noah, Bobo, and I run towards him.

"Wait!" I yell, and he turns towards us.

"Van Kleiss left behind a few presents." Bobo explains as Noah holds out the now broken bomb.

Rex stares at it then runs towards a control panel. "No time to look everywhere, I'm shutting everything down."

"You can do that?" Noah and I ask at the same time in confusion.

"Dunno." He answers honestly. "Never tried."

By now Six had walked up beside us, I glance at him. He looked fine besides a few scratches.

Rex places his hands on the panel and blue lines stretch out from his hand on to the panel, then spill off on to the floor.

I stare at them as they criss cross crazily; I hop around a bit trying not to step on them. They cover the whole room and spill into the rest of the building. After a minute or so it dies down, all the lines disappear.

"Dude, that would be an awesome party trick." I mutter.

Rex smugly walks towards us, looking quite proud of himself. I guess he must have dissembled all the bombs.

"Anything else?" He asks looking at Noah, Bobo and I.

I shrug.

He turns to Six. "No?"

Rex doesn't wait for a response; he runs forwards and transforms, flying through the hole in the ceiling.

But he comes back after a few minutes, frowning. Apparently, maybe it was because he was tired or something, even though he had Kleiss in his sights he had to return because his machine propellers started breaking down. I smile, It sucked that he didn't get Kleiss but it was nice to know he wasn't stupid to take him on when he wasn't at his best.

Now, it was clean up time. I walk around trying to wake up unconscious soldiers while Rex cures EVO's.

I poke the one agent who had gotten turned into an EVO during the fight by Kleiss. I talk to him softly. "Um…excuse me…time to wake up…"

He slowly stirs and looks up. "Wh-What happened?

"Um…" I rub my neck wondering how to respond. "You got knocked out by Van Kleiss and his cronies, then when Rex was fighting him Kleiss turned you into a EVO, but then Rex cured you. So yeah. Also he got away."

I can't read the guy's expression since he had a mask on, but I could tell how he felt when let's out a frustrated groan. "I don't get paid enough for this…"

"Well…" I shrug. "At least you get paid."

Rex and I certainly didn't, a subject that Rex complained about loudly. Though they were paying for our food, beds, and education (given by Holiday) so there was that.

He stares at me, and then nods. "Good point."

I follow Six and Rex into a hallway, where there were soldiers marching past. Three were guarding a EVO. Rex leans down and does his magic, and the purple thing turns back into…that blond guy from before, the one who let us drive the key before. I think his name was Captain Calan.

Rex helps pull him to his feet.

"Whew, I never want to do that again." Calan chuckles. "No sir."

We smile; good he seemed to be okay.

After all that is done we head back to the lab, where Holiday tests out Rex's nanites again.

Bobo, Noah and I were sitting on the steps watching. Holiday mutter "Amazing" as Rex slides out of the machine.

"Why, thank you." He jokes getting up.

"I was talking about the nanites." Holiday shoots back.

Noah laughs and I yell out "Rejected!"

"That was a risky move Rex but it worked." Holoiday congratulates. "As far as I can tell your back to your old self."

"I don't know…" Rex slides off the table looking at his hands. "Something feels different. That new build? I think I can do even more. It's like I can see the blueprints, I just have to figure out how to put it all together."

I lean down to whisper to Noah. "That still sounds crazy complicated."

Noah nods. "Yah but its Rex. He figures this stuff out."

We shut up when Six and _White Knight_ round the corner, White Knight in his battle suit. Wait…did he end up helping? I never _saw_ the guy, so…what the hell?

Noah, Bobo, and I quickly get up off the steps and stand behind the other two.

"White Knight in person." Holiday says, not sounding very happy. "Never though I'd see the day.

"I think I could have gone a couple more years too." Bobo mutters.

"Or, you know, forever." I agree.

"Well don't get used to it." Knight states gruffly. "We found all the explosives. The base and the keep will need extensive repairs. This was not our finest hour." He says bluntly.

" _Our_? You weren't even here, don't talk." I whisper angrily, Noah elbows me to keep me quiet.

"What are you talking about?" Rex exclaims, and I grin. "We kicked butt, so what if Van Kleiss is back and more powerful than ever? So am I! If he wants a nanite war, let him bring it!"

White Knight laughs.

"The world is ending." I remark, horrified. Even Bobo looked surprised.

"It's good to have you back Rex." He continues.

"I second that 'world is ending' thing." Noah agrees.

"You know, I think he actually means it." Holiday comments.

"Sure he does." Rex says, not sounding at all convinced. "So tell me something guys." He looks around at us. "What's next?"


	8. Chapter 8

It's been a day since that whole mess, and honestly things were pretty calm right now. Holiday even let Rex and I off of the school work for today, sweet!

It felt nice having a chance to actually just relax, sometimes so much stuff was happening it was just really hard to think! I could do anything I wanted…well sort of. Nothing to do…it was nice…relaxing…calming…

Boring. I was bored. So bored!

I groan and turn over on my bed, smushing my face into the pillow. I lying on my bed trying to read a book but my mind kept wondering. There was noting to distract me, it was five AM, every sane person was asleep. Well besides some construction workers, Van Kleiss had done a number on this place. I heard Rex and I might actually be moved to Noah's house for a while, since we kept accidently messing up the reconstructions. (AKA Rex kept goofing off and breaking them.)

Only reason I wasn't asleep right now was because my mind kept drifting off to home, something I didn't really want to think of right now. I missed the familiarity of home, Sunny's Diner, and Tile and Dilan (his three year old). I lived in a small apartment near Sunny's using the money my parents left behind and the money I got at my job. I think Tile gave me more then he would just because he knew of my situation, he could be too nice for his own good. I would like to grab some of my stuff, and to say hi to Tile and Dilan.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm still here, I know the threat of Breach was very real, but it's been a while since then. Sometimes when I'm about to go to sleep a voice whispers in my head, asking if I'll ever return home, and…if I even want to. This place was growing on me… Six, Holiday, Bobo, Noah, and Rex. I was starting to get used to all the craziness, and I got a great room here, friends my age, good food, and even an education.

I sigh again and roll over, staring at the ceiling. I loved all those things…but damn would I _kill_ for a cup of Sunny's classic coffee.

Making up my mind I grab a dark blue messenger bag lying on the ground. I loved this bag, it had the pattern of white owls sitting on a white tree, the owls eyes were light blue. I start to pack what I'll need…which isn't a lot. My phone (Holiday had bought one for me which is totally awesome) my apartment key, and some money.

The only problem might be that Providence has cameras in the hallways, but maybe they wouldn't care with me wondering around until they saw me leave…which would give me like ten seconds to find a plane and high jack it. Totally fool proof. Rex had shows me how to high jack one once when we were bored, I bet I could do it again. Maybe. And I knew where they kept the planes, in a hangar attached to the back of the Providence building. Also maybe the guards watching the cameras didn't know I wasn't really supposed to go off on my own…

That was a lot of maybes. It was just going to be a small trip… just long enough for me to grab some caffeine, and get some personal items. Nothing dangerous.

At least, that's what I tried to convince myself of as I tied my dark blue hoodie around my waist. I was wearing a black tang top, and jean shorts. I sling the bag around my shoulder and _really_ quietly press the button on the panel and the door slides open. Glancing both ways down the semi dark hall (they had these semi-bright lights they use when it's night time) I take a step into the hall and the door closes behind me.

So far so good.

I take another step-and trip on my face.

"OW!" I blurt out, holding my poor sore nose in my hands as I glare behind me. What just happened?

My eyes widen in disbelief as I realize that one of my sneakers shoelaces had gotten _caught_ in the doorway!

"Unbelievable…" I mutter, trying not to shout every curse word known to man. I get up, hopping on one foot, and key in the code to my door on the panel on the outside wall. Thankfully the door opens, and I move my shoelace out of the way. When the sensors indicate no one was in the way of the door, it slides back into place.

I breathe a sigh of relief and turn around, and nearly scream again. I gasp, I had not been expecting a Providence agent to suddenly be standing right behind me!

…Well, okay, they weren't standing _right_ behind me. They were a few feet away just about to walk around the corner, but instead had stopped in confusion upon seeing me. (at least I think so, they had the face mask thing on so…) They had probably seen me scrambling on the ground. Great.

"Um…hi." I mutter.

"Hi." The guard says in a weirdly deep voice. "Uh, little late-or early really, to be out?"

"Uh yehh, I'm just…" Think brain, think! "Going for a walk, you know, stretching my legs."

He looks at my messenger bag, then back to me. "With a bag?"

Son of a- so what? He had a bag too! That white one Providence Agents always carry, it was normal!

Ok, not really.

"Yeah, you know…for snacks! In case I get hungry…" I laugh nervously and start to back up. "Okay so…bye!" I give a little wave and dart off before he can reply.

I run around a corner and keep going. When I pass by a sort of busy hallway I duck into a public room (meaning no passwords needed) and wait for the two chatting guards to walk by.

"And Chrissy thought _I_ was crazy? She should have seen Louis when she heard…" A guard babbles.

Huh. So the guards gossip. Well duh, I guess they would they are human. But still, they usually act so professional.

I slink out of the hallway and run off again. Sometimes I see a flash of a guard and I quickly try to change directions, while still heading towards where they keep the aircrafts. I had no idea if I had passed by the same guard twice, they all looked really similar in those uniforms.

I reach the back of the building by some miracle, but I have to quickly duck behind a large plant. They were some agents guarding the doors to the hanger, if I could just get through there and to the hanger I would be golden…but how? Maybe if I just walked up to them and acted like I obviously had permission to walk around at 5 AM and it would be super silly to wake up Six or Holiday to ask… the guards looked distracted, they were talking, maybe I could…

I'm deep in my thought trying to think up some crazy plan that I almost don't notice it when someone coughs behind me, trying to get my attention.

Almost.

I jump almost scream but a hand snaps out and clamps my mouth shut, as another grabs me around the waist. My eyes widen in panic and I immediately start clawing like a wild cat trying to get out of their hold.

"It's me, it's me!" A voice hisses in my ear, a very familiar voice…

I look over my shoulder and my eyes meet a familiar brown pair.

"Rex?!"

"Shhhh!"

I immediately shut up and look over at the agents, had they heard?

Nope, they were too busy chatting. Whew.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, angrily whispering. "I nearly had a heart attack!"

"I could ask you the same question!" He hisses back. "And you nearly clawed my arms off!"

I finally get a good look at him, we were both crouching behind the plant and I realize that Rex was in a Providence Agent uniform, though he had taken off the mask.

"Why are you wearing that?" I ask. He looks at me a bit guilty like, and suddenly I remember the guard from before, the one with the weirdly deep voice…like a fake voice…

"Oh my god you're following me!" I accuse, pointing.

"What? No I'm not!"

"Yeah right!"

"No seriously, I'm not!" He insists. "Okay, I did follow you to here, but It wasn't my plan! I was curious about why the hell you were walking around at 5 AM with a bag! Also you suck at lying by the way, oh, and at closing doors." He raises an eyebrow.

I feel my cheeks redden and I quickly switch the subject. "Well why were you walking around in a Providence uniform?!"

He shrugs. "I was awake and got bored and wanted to wander around, but last time I did that and got caught Holiday gave me a loooong lecture on the 'importance of sleep', so I stole a Providence uniform and wore that so I would blend in. I saw you when I was coming back to my room, and decided to see what you were up too. I fried the camera's beforehand-" He raises up his hand to illustrate. "So we should be in the clear as long as these guards don't see us."

"…That's actually a good plan." I murmer.

"Yeah, too bad I don't have an extra uniform. But I do have an idea…how good are your acting skills? Wait, never mind, terrible."

I open my mouth to argue but he cuts me off.

"Just play along, okay?"

But I have a chance to answer he puts his mask back on and grabs my arm hauling me out from the plant; he then pushes me in front of him.

"Walk." He whispers and I do, though I was a bit nervous. The guards turn to look at us as we get closer.

"Mid night drill ordered by Six, she's going to have to know how to fly a plane at any given moment, which apparently includes the middle of the night." Rex explains in that really deep voice again. My acting skills may suck, but he sounds like he needs a cough drop!

"What a slave driver." One of the guards shakes his head. I try to act like I'm sleepy and annoyed; it's not very hard.

The other guard looks more suspicious. "I haven't heard anything about this drill..."

Rex shrugs. "I didn't know either pal, believe me I'm annoyed as you are! But unless you want to be the one to go to Six and explain why we're wastin ghis time..."

The guard suddenly looks nervous. "Wel...alright. Good luck." He presses a code into the panel and the doors open up.

Rex and I march through into a large room filled with planes in a row. When the door closes behind us we instantly sigh, losing composure.

"That was actually pretty good."

"Thanks, I knew how hard Six can be from experience." Rex shudders. "Anyways, now do you care to explain why your running away in the middle of the night? Is Providence that bad?"

"No, no it's fine!" I wave my hands around trying to make sure he doesn't get the wrong idea. "I-well…" I brush my hand back through my hair nervously. "I kind of wanted to see my old town again, Runel. Also to maybe say hi to my boss and his kid…and grab some of my stuff from my apartment before the land lord takes it away since I'm not exactly paying rent now..."

"Oh, I get it. And they wouldn't let you leave now since Six would start freaking out over Breach…well Six doesn't actually freak but…"

I shake my head, not really looking at him. "Yeah so…your not going to bust me?"

"No way, I've run off enough times that I can't tell someone off for doing the same. _But_ -"

I look at him, and he's grinning.

"I get to come with you."

"Y-You want to?" I ask, surprised.

He shrugs. "Sure, it'll be fun. Besides what were you going to do, try to hack into the plane yourself?"

"You've taught me how!" I point out.

"Please, it takes a professional." He says smugly and I roll my eyes fighting off a smile.

We run over to a smaller aircraft be the end of the hanger, it was like the one Bobo drove that one time. We climb on and Rex runs to the pilot seat, I hop into the passenger seat.

"Why do you get to drive?" I grumble, crossing my arms.

He smirks. "Cus I can do this!" He presses his hands against the controls and blue light emits from his hands and runs across the entire plane. It rumbles to life, and the door at the front of the hanger opens.

"…Good point." I concede.

He grabs the controls and the plane rolls through the opening, gaining speed.

"WHOOHOOO!" Rex yells as the plane starts to lift up and we soar into the sky.

"Uh… you know how to drive this thing…right?" I ask nervously, glancing through the window as the ground gets farther and farther away.

"Duh…well kind of."

"Kind of?!"

He shrugs. "How hard can it be?"

Thirty minutes or so passes and I use a map I found in the glove box to try to point Rex in the right direction

"Ok so head to the left…left…left! What does left mean to you?!"

"Okay! Okay! Chill, this is a little confusing to work…"

"How hard can it be?" I mock, talking in an overly deep fake voice. "Oh look at me, I'm Rex and I _totally_ know what I'm doing!"

He glances over at me, an eyebrow raised. "I do _not_ sound like that!"

I scoff. "When you were pretending to be a Providence Agent you sounded like there was an actual frog in your throat."

Rex rolls his eyes and waves a hand at me to shut up. "Yeah, yeah."

We fly for a little while longer when Rex suddenly breaks the silence. "Oh, can you take over for a bit?"

I stare at him, then to the controls, then back to him in horror. "Uh…" Okay, at first I had _really_ wanted t fly, but after watching Rex it looked way complicated!

"Come on, just for a few minutes! I want to change out of the uniform, how well would everyone treat me if I showed up in this?" He exclaims, pointing at his uniform.

"…True. But do you even have a change of clothes?"

He lifts up his white providence bag. "Got them in here."

As he gets up I nervously slide into his seat, gripping the controls with an iron grip. "Okay…hurry."

I hear him walk off and I stare out the windows at the ground below us. We had passed a few major cities, which was actually really cool to see from above, and were passing a few mountains now. Wow, I would have never, _ever_ had thought my life would take the turn that it had.

I keep the plane steady as we soar over the mountains. I keep muttering over my breath "It's okay…it's okay…don't freak out…it's okay…"

It's a _little_ nerve wracking flying a jet, when you have had _no experience_ beforehand.

"You're doing good."

I let out a strangled cry and wrench at the controls. I hear a crash behind me and a groan of pain, but I ignore it as I struggle to pull the controls down as I send the plane spiraling upwards.

"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT" I scream as I tug on the controls, after a few seconds and plenty of heart attacks I once again get the plane under control.

I let out a sigh of relief and bow my head slightly, breathing hard. I look up when I feel a gloved hand on my own on the controller.

"Nice job, retaco. Maybe I'll take over again." Rex offers, rubbing his head with his free hand. He was wearing his usual clothes now.

I let out a nervous high pitch laugh and nearly jump back into my old seat. "Please do… and did you just call me a taco?"

He just smirks and focuses on flying the plane, not answering my question.

Another hour or so goes by and finally _finally_ I spot familiar forests and patches of grass as we start to get closer to town.

"Land here, this way they won't see the plane." I point at a clear spot on the ground and Rex starts to lower the plane.

I grab at the arms of my chair hard, knuckles going white. But nothing bad happens, Rex lands the jet pretty well, besides a few bumps here and there.

He lands the jet and places his hand on the controller, shutting it down. We hop out of the jet, our boots sinking a few inches in the mud. It had just rained.

"Nice place." Rex mutters, his boots making squelching sound as we walk.

I laugh, feeling my moot lifting. I had been more homesick than I thought. "Wait till you see town."

We walk for a ten minutes before arriving on a large hill overlooking my small town. The sun was just coming up, shining soft golden rays. There was hardly anyone up, since it was still pretty early.

I point at the beach to our left. "See that? That's where I met Breach…"

Rex nods staring at the small town, taking everything in. I stand still, just watching. It felt nice to be back but… It felt different…no. I felt different.

I hear Rex cough beside me. "Um…so, we doing this? Or not? 'Cus I didn't nearly die in a plane crash just to take in the view."

A smile crosses my face and I nod again. "Yah let's go." I slide down the hill, Rex behind me. We reach the outskirts of town and start to walk in, I look around, nothing had changed very much. The place was still full of old-ish dusty buildings and dirt streets.

"Wow, party central." Rex comments, glancing around.

I yawn, stretching my arms behind my head. "Yah well, it's early. Though it's never exactly been 'party central'. Let's drop by my apartment first so I can grab my stuff."

Rex nods and does a fake bow, his hand outstretched in front of him. "Lead the way."

We arrive in front of a small old wooden building.

"This is your apartment?"

I shrug. "It's not paradise. But it worked."

We enter the building and I head up the stairs towards the top floor. On my door was a note saying that my rent was overdue and the apartment was going to be sold to someone else in a week. Good thing I came now. I open the door using my key and step inside. It was dark so I turn on the light; it blinks a bit but finally stays on.

It was just how I remembered it, small, not too much furniture, a living room that opened up into a kitchen, and there was a small bedroom and bathroom.

"Just how I remembered it." I mutter, I turn to Rex who had to actually duck under the small doorway. "Make yourself at home, I guess, I'm just going to grab some stuff then we can leave."

He nods and he wanders off as I head into the living room. I grab a couple of my favorite books off the shelves, and sit down on the couch, taking a second to just look around.

What would happen when this was all over? Would I return? Would I _want_ to return?

My deep thinking (AKA panicking) is interrupted by Rex's loud laughter. He bursts into the living room, a very familiar object in his hand.

"Oh crap…" I mutter, my cheeks flaring red.

Rex laughs again, like it's the funniest thing in the world. "You slept with a toy penguin?!"

He raises the small toy penguin stuffy in his hand like it' a trophy. I just cover my face with my hands. I had forgotten about that.

"…No…" I stand up and grab the offending object from him, before stuffing it into my backpack. Ok, maybe it was embarrassing, but I was keeping it!

Rex was _still_ laughing. "Aww, th-that's so cute!"

I groan my face going the same shade as a tomato. "Shut up!" I yell, throwing a book at him.

It smacks him in the head and he rubs it. "Ow! Really, a hard cover?"

I cross my arms and stick my tongue out. "You deserved it."

I'm expecting a witty reply but instead I notice that he's staring at something on the bookshelf. I glance at it, and realize that he's staring at an old family photo. It was taken when I was nine, my mom and dad with their arms wrapped around each others shoulders, and I was in the middle laughing.

"They looked like you." Rex comments softly.

I nod, staring at the photo. My mom and dad both had brown hair like mine, except my moms were a bit darker. My mom's eyes were green like mine while my dad's were blue.

"It happened when I was nine. A month after that photo was taken. I was home with a babysitter and they were driving from work, when suddenly an EVO came out of nowhere and-" I stop my voice hitching. Even now the pain was still fresh. They had died in the attack, them plus five other people before Providence could get a hold of it.

"Hey…you don't have to tell me…" Rex says softly, coming closer. I stare at the ground, my eyesight blurring.

"No-I-I want to. I had no other living relatives back then, so they sent me to an orphanage, but the only one that was available on such short notice was the one in this town. I used to live in a large city…I guess it was kind of good that I moved I think staying in the same town…being reminded of them all the time would have been horrible."

I sniffle again, feeling a little embarrassed being so…open. I usually never cried in front of people. But it didn't feel that bad doing it in front of Rex. I guess I had really grown comfortable around him.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and it squeezes. He doesn't say anything but I know Rex is giving me his support. I breathe deeply, eyes not looking up from the floor.

"I only stayed at the orphanage until I was twelve, that's the limit there. It wasn't the best place, I met some pretty mean people…but at least I got food, bed, and some sort of schooling. Afterwards they basically sent us off into the world, some of the worst kids I know got involved in…stuff."

It was hard being thrown out of the orphanage, so some of the meaner kids usually took to gangs or something. I continue. "But I stayed away from that, I got some odd jobs, and lived at this small place rooming with some other kids in the same situation. They were okay I guess, but none of us became the best of friends, Maybe because none of us wanted to have any ties to the orphanage. We all had the same goal, live our own lives. Though I still; get a few calls from them once in a while, I try to sort of stay in touch. Last year I got enough money to move out into a place of my own, and I got a good job at a diner…it's not paradise but I made a life for myself. I learned to live on my own. It was strange coming to Providence, I hadn't lived with people who were so…caring in a long time."

I would have continued but I stop, surprised, as I feel arms circle around me. Suddenly I'm being held in a sort of death grip as Rex hugs me.

"Um-um" I stutter, cheeks reddening. "Rex? Um…having trouble breathing here…"

He stays like that for a second, before letting go and taking a step back. I look up at him, and his face is a mixture of surprise at his own actions and sadness.

"S-Sorry, I guess-uh…" He trails off rubbing the back of his head.

My mouth twitches, and I let out a laugh, the depressing atmosphere disappearing.

"It's okay…thanks. It's..nice to have friends. I never really had many…"

Rex laughs. "Neither did I, and really I only have three. You, Noah, and Bobo. Six and Holiday are more like my nannies."

"Yeah, if you can call a guy who can slice and dice an EVO in two seconds, plus a lady who's probably the smartest nanite scientist, like, ever, a nanny." We both laugh.

"Now come on, let's not stay here all day." I announce, ending the sappy moment. I grabe the family picture and put it in my bag, and head to my room grabbing a few other personal items. When I finish I heads to the door, Rex is standing there waiting for me.

"Where to next?" Rex asks as I close and lock my door, possibly for the last time.

I shrug. "Let's head down to Sunny's Diner. You're going to _love_ the coffee there."

He makes a face as we walk down the stairs. "Do they have like…hot chocolate?"

I gasp in fake horror, turning back to look at him. "You don't like _coffee_?! Obviously there's something wrong with you!"

Rex snorts, and cross his arms. "Something's wrong with _you_. The stuff is so bitter!"

"Well, duh!" We leave the building; there were a few more people out by now. They glance curiously at us as we walk by, probably because for one thing I had been gone for a while, and also because we don't get strangers around here often.

"It's bitter if you just drink it black, just add some sugar and cream it tastes great then!"

Rex looks at me suspiciously. "Ehhh…"

I sigh, exasperated. "Wait until we get there before making the worst decision of your life."

I walk up the small hill, Sunny's Diner on top. It was just opening up, we walk up the hill and I open the door. Rex follows me as I sit down at my regular booth, in the back next to the corner window.

"Huh, nice place." Rex comment, sitting across from, bouncing on the red leather seats.

"Yah." I agree, resting an elbow on the table.

Before long a waiter comes by, some recognize actually. "Hey, what can I g-RIMMY?"

And once again, I'm enveloped into a crushing hug. I pat his back and laugh. "Hey Juno."

He pulls back, pulling me up. "It's you! What happened? Tile's told us something about Providence?!"

"Um…well…it's a bit of a long story…I'm staying at Providence right now for safety reasons. Um, this guy here is Rex, Rex meet Juno my co-worker." I wave a hand at both of them.

Juno reaches a hand out for Rex to shake but he ignores it. "Hi…" Rex says icely, staring at the curly blond hair boy.

Both Juno and I give him a strange look but Juno quickly turns back to me. "So good to see you again, Tile's will be too, he should be in a ten minutes or so. Stay here I'll bring the usual's, on the house!"

He runs off towards the kitchen, I sit down smiling softly to myself. Juno was a pretty great co-worker, but he was a bit…overly happy at times, and a sort of touchy feely guy. He was able to take a lot of things in stride, which was helpful when he had to deal with difficult customers.

"He's…nice." Rex comments, crossing his arms.

I shrug. "He's just that kind of guy."

"Rimmy?"

"Yah, a nickname he gave me. Tiles uses it too, it get's kind of annoying."

"Yah, you obviously hate it." Rex mutters sarcastically.

I raise an eyebrow. "What's with the attitude change?"

Rex shrugs. "Nothing."

"Uh huh…"

Juno returns, practically skipping over to us, arms full of platters of food.

"Here ya go!" Juno says happily, putting down the plates of eggs, bacon, and waffles in front of us. Plus two big cups of coffee.

"Juno you're an angel!" I exclaim, grabbing the cup of coffee.

He laughs. "Thanks Rimmy, I already added cream and sugar in."

"Awesome!" I take a large sip, and relax, leaning my head back against the seat. "That's the stuff…"

Rex looks grouchily down at his coffee, Juno notices. "What's wrong? Don't like coffee?"

"Not particularly…"

I roll my eyes and turn to Juno. "He's completely nutty. Hopefully when he tries Sunny's famous coffee, he'll change his mind."

"Ah." Juno nods. "Okay, well gotta go and serve the other customers. Bye Rex, bye Rimmy, don't be shy and come visit us some more!"

I nod. "Will do Juno, as long as you guys don't stop serving coffee!"

He walks off and I look over at Rex, grinning as I gesture to the cup. "Well? Drink it!"

Rex looks down at the cup like it's toilet slim, but he brings it to his lips and takes a tentative sip.

I put my hands on the table, leaning forwards. "Welllll…?"

Rex looks over the rim of the cup at me (ha!) and raises an eyebrow. "Eh."

"Eh?!" I cry in outrage. "What do you mean 'EH'?!"

He shrugs, putting the coffee down. "Already told you, don't like coffee. Though it is _slightly_ better then the coffee from Providence."

I groan. "Fine, I'll take it."

We eat our meal; I hardly take a moment to breath as I stuff my face. Providence food was okay, but could _not_ beat this!

"RIMMY!"

"ULG!" And AGAIN I'm suddenly tackled into a hug, this time I'm nearly choking to death as I try to swallow the bite of potato's.

Tile hears me choking and quickly let's go. I have a quick second to breath before he starts launching questions.

"Where have you been? What happened? What's going on? Are you hurt? Are you okay? Do you know how worried I was? And who is _he_?! Did he _hurt_ you?!"

Rex eyes widen and he raises his hands up into the air as he's suddenly faced with a thirty-or so year old Asian man.

I speak fast trying to answer all the question before he misunderstands and bashes a cup over Rex's head or something. "Wait, wait, wait! Uh…Providence, kinda got attacked and need to stay there for safety, not hurt, okay as can be I guess, I can guess how worried, and that is Rex and no he has not hurt me. So please don't hurt him!"

Tile gazes at Rex sternly arms crossed. Rex gives him a large nervous smile. Tile looks over at me, eyes narrowing.

"You were _attacked_?! By what? And if you are staying at Providence for safety why are you _here_? And why is he with you?"

"I-well…" I know I wasn't supposed to say details but… "I was attacked by an EVO chick who thought I was a spy, she has the ability to sort of teleport people to places and she brought me to Providence… that's how I met him." I nod at Rex.

"We're here because I guess I wanted to visit, and grab some personal stuff. Rex is along in case things get hairy, he works for Providence."

"An EVO? That can teleport? And she thought you were a _spy_?!" Tile struggles to keep his voice down, then he sighs slumping a bit.

"You have a real knack for getting into trouble, don't you?"

I defend myself. "Never on purpose!...Usually."

"And you!" Tile whirls around, pointing at Rex who inches away.

"Uh, yes…sir?"

"Keep her safe. You even think of crossing the line and-" Tile drags his finger across his neck making a growling sound.

Rex nods his head like his a bobble head. "No sir, of course I wouldn't sir!"

"Good." Tile nods then turns back to me. "I'll go grab Dilan, stay here!"

We both shout yes as Tile leaves the diner. I turn to Rex who slumps in his seat.

I laugh nervously. "So…hope he didn't scare ya. I swear he usually doesn't act like that…And I don't know what 'line' he was talking about."

Rex just nods, wiping his hand across his forehead. "He's almost as scary as Holiday is when she's mad."

A few minutes later I see a flash of black hair as a little child launches himself at me. I catch him, laughing. "Dilan!"

He grins up at me. "Rimmy! Rimmy!"

I squeeze him. "It's good to see ya little buddy!"

He squirms. "I'm not little! I'm big!"

I laugh. "Of course."

Dilan jumps back over to his dad who is standing by our table. He looks gleefully up at his dad, but then his eyes stray over to Rex. Rex slides over to make room as the hyper three year old jumps on to the seat, leaning forwards staring at Rex.

"Who are you?" Dilan asks.

"I'm Rex, you must be Dilan." Rex smiles.

Dilan gives him a toothy grin back. Tile nods, satisfied. Seems like Rex passes some sort of test.

After playing with Dilan a bit Tile finally manages to drag him back. "Alright Dilan, let them enjoy their meal…"

After he leaves Rex catches me staring. "What?"

I shrug. "Didn't know you were good with kids."

Rex rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Well…you know me, full of surprises."

I rest my chin in my hand. "Yah…"

"We should leave, they must have noticed us missing by now." Rex points out.

I nod, grabbing my bag and getting up. "Yah okay." I was sad to leave, but I promised myself I would visit again sometime soon.

I promise the same to Tile and Dilan, which is the only reason Dilan let's, go of my leg.

"Soon? Okay? And write! And call!" Dilan orders, pointing at me.

"Course!" I ruffle his hair.

He turns to Rex who looks surprised at the sudden attention. "You too!"

"Uh…sure." Rex nods, smiling and crouching down to Dilan's level.

"Be careful." Tile murmurs to me as he hugs me goodbye.

He glances over at Rex. "And you," Rex quickly straightens up.

"Take care of her. Something happens to her and I'll serve you up for dinner." Tile threatens.

I groan as Rex nods vigorously. "Of course!"

As the two talks, well, more like as Tile scares the nanites out of Rex Juno walks up to me. He gives me a hug, and laughs.

I pull away giving him a weird look. "What's funny?"

He shakes his head. "You should probably tell your boyfriend I don't work that way, I think he's kind of jealous."

I glance over at Rex who's glaring at Juno but looks away when he notices me looking. Blushing, I look back at Juno. "He's not my boyfriend!"

Juno rolls his eyes. "Yet." He cuts off my protests, laughing. "Don't mess up, okay? Visit soon!" And he pushes me off towards Rex.

"Ready to go?" Rex asks, glancing once again at Juno who waves.

"Um…yeah." I nod, waving goodbye to Tiles and Dilan we exit the diner.

As we slide down the hill I keep glancing over at Rex. "What?" He asks.

"Um…you do know that…" I trail off looking down at the grass, fiddling with my sleeve nervously as walk down the trail.

"Know what?" Rex asks, I can feel his eyes on me.

I look up and for some reason Rex has a slightly worried expression on his face.

"Um Juno is, well….he walks on the other side of the street."

Rex looks over at the street. "Huh?"

I facepalm. "No I mean… he plays a different court."

Rex gives me a bewildered expression. "What court?"

"He plays baseball instead of volleyball."

"…What?"

I groan, throwing my hands into the air. "He's gay! For some reason he wanted me to tell you that because he thought you were 'jealous!'"

Rex blinks in surprise. "Oh…wait, why would I be jealous?"

I shrug, feeling awkward. "I don't know." I don't add what else he said, it's not necessary.

"Oh." Rex repeats, hands stuffed in his pockets. "You know when you said if I knew something I thought you meant…"

"Meant what?" I ask.

Strangely Rex blushes, rubbing his neck slightly. He let's out a nervous laugh. "I just thought maybe he was your boyfriend or something…since he you know was so friendly…"

I stare at him for a second, and then let out a bark of laughter. "No, I already told you he's just like that!"

Rex nods looking relieved. "Cool…"

"At least all you did was glare at him, and not like, shake a can of soda and put it on his seat or something." I mull, thinking over my last actions which had been way over the top.

He looks at me confused, and I nearly face palm again. Why did I say that? I shouldn't have said that. I really need a filter.

"Hey…wait a minute…" Rex mumbles, slowly realizing the devious thing I had done on our little adventure with Gatelocke.

I giggle nervously. "Race ya!" I bolt, Rex running after me.

"Come back here!"

Eventually we arrive at the plane, and after getting an annoying noogie from Rex he flies us out of there. I watch the town grow smaller and smaller, as my grin grows wider and wider. It was sad leaving everyone behind…but I would see them again.

"So you were jealous?" Rex asks, giving me a devilish smirk.

I roll my eyes. "Nope."

"Not even a little?"

"Nada."

"Suuuure. Retaco. Sure."

"I _wasn't_! AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!" I yell, cheeks burning as I glare at Rex my arms crossed.

Rex laughs and changes the subject. "So…think Holiday and Six noticed we're gone by now?" Rex asks.

"Guess we'll find out…"

 **oOoOoO**

"-Irresponsible! The possibilities! What if Breach had attacked?!"

I groan. Rex was right Holiday was scary when she was mad. Oh, and spoiler, they noticed.

"AND you are two growing teenager!" She points an accusing finger at us, and Six stands silently behind her. Bobo watches from a chair, looking very amused.

"You need your rest!"

This time Rex groans, slumping in his seat. " _Please_ don't give me the sleep lecture again! Besides, I can get my beauty rest during boring Providence meetings!"

"You definitely need it."

Rex throws his show at Bobo, who laughs and dodges.

Holiday raises a hand to her forehead, rubbing it. "And _how_ Rex, did you even manage to get a Providence guard uniform?" They had found it when they had searched the plane.

Rex smirks. "I have my ways."

Holiday sighs in exasperation, Six just raises an eyebrow.


	9. Chapter 9

**oOoOo**

I watch from behind the safety of bullet proof glass as Rex slices through the training obstacles inside the training room. I back away when there's a sudden burst of fire, but Rex leaps out of the flames, his legs turned into a vehicle.

Sudden there's missiles being fired at him, he transforms into the Blast Caster and catches the missiles, throwing them in the other direction. He was doing really good…until he got smacked by a an obstacle that shot out from the floor, soon he's getting battered around like a ping pong machine.

I wince as he falls to the ground. Six doesn't say a word but walks down there, probably to give Rex a cheery pep talk. We all knew he was frustrated that we didn't know where Kliess was.

I follow them out the door as Rex grumbles. "I wish they'd hurry up and get the HQ rebuild." We pass by a section of reconstruction, an annoying sound of a sawing echoing across the hallway. A bunch of it had been destroyed in the attack. Including Six's bedroom.

"Your not still living under your jump jet like some ninja hobo, are you?" Rex asks.

"Ninja hobo…" I snicker into my hand, trying to disguise it as a cough.

"My temporary accommodations are perfectly adequate." Six replies evenly.

"Yep, still living in the jet." Rex says.

"Ugh, I hate being kicked out of our house." Rex complains as we reach a section of wall that had been destroyed, showing a view of the outside. "Although, as long as they're building stuff, I need a hot tub!"

"Ooh, same!" I add, raising my hand.

Six just quirks an eyebrow.

Afterwards we get bored of wandering around so we fly to Noah's house. Holiday and Six had decided we were enough trouble as it is without accidently knocking over the reconstructions (Rex's fault!) so they had asked Noah to let us stay at his house while they fixed it.

I felt a little bad about just barging in since Noah seems like he's studying hard. Rex is watching some weird dramatic Spanish show. I couldn't understand a thing, though I sit next to him on the couch and steal some of the popcorn.

"What are you watching?" Noah asks, bewildered. He was sitting at the kitchen table, a bunch of textbooks in front of him and was writing something down. Bobo was sitting on the table picking at his toes. Ew.

"Cultural enrichment." Rex replies.

"Is that what this is?" I mutter skeptically.

"Later on we find out if Doctor Sworez chooses Isabelle _or_ her evil half sister Maria."

"Fascinating…" I say sarcastically, kicking at Rex's shoulder who was lying down. "You're taking the whole couch, move!"

"You move!"

"I _can't_ , no room!"

I hear a pencil snap and turn to look at Noah who looks pissed. "If you guys are going to stay with me while they're rebuilding Providence. At least don't flaunt the fact that you don't have a pre-calculus test in three days."

"Pre-what?" Rex asks.

"Exactly my point." Noah groans. "And when I agreed to this, I wasn't expecting the sidekick too!"

I get up and walk over to Noah curiously. I had been learning a little about this stuff, but not very much.

"Hey pale-y, we're a package deal, live with it." Bobo exclaims, clipping a toenail. It flies into Noah's open mouth.

"EW!" I yell jumping back as Noah chokes, spitting it out.

"Was that a toenail?!" He exclaims. "Did I just get hit by a toenail?!"

"What's your deal?" Rex asks.

"AGH!" Noah jumps up, hacking. "It went in my mouth!"

"That's nasty! Bobo, what the hell?!" I cry.

Bobo shrugs. "He should learn to keep his mouth closed. Literally."

"Okay, that is gross." Rex concedes. "Bobo, bad monkey. I thought this would be fun."

"For you maybe!" Noah complains. "I've got a real life too, you know?" He picks up another textbook, glaring at it.

"As much as I want it too be, it can't be all fun and games all the time Rex!"

"Why not? Works for me."

I sigh, rubbing my forehead. "Rex you can be such an idiot…"

"At least I'm not a retaco!"

I growl, my hands bunching into fists. "I need google translate!"

"Hey!" Noah jumps into our conversation. "I like adventure as much as the next guy, but I still have to pass math!"

"You're not going to fail math!" Rex insists. "You have like, the fourth highest GPA in your class!"

"It used to be third." Noah mutters gloomily.

"And ten years from now nobodies going to care." Rex points out.

Suddenly there's a weird beeping noise.

"Hey Doc, miss me?" Rex asks, glancing around looking for his earpiece. He finds it lying on the couch and puts it in his ear.

"Oh, a situation?"

Noah and I glance at each other. Might be the time for one of those adventures they were talking about.

"Really?" Rex says, sounding interested. "Awesome!"

I inch closer trying to hear the conversation, while Noah almost falls off the stool as he tries to do the same.

"Nope I'm not doing anything." Rex says. "Be right there."

He get's up and Noah and I whirl around, both of us pretending to be busy reading a textbook.

"I'm going to pound some EVO into submission." Rex announces, grabbing his jacket off the back of a chair. "Wanna come?"

"You're serious?" Noah asks.

I hesitate and Rex looks at us pleadingly.

"Come on! It'll be fine!"

"For you maybe, you get to smash stuff." I point out. "And you're used to being around EVO's, I'm still getting used to it…well…besides you." I mutter awkwardly.

Rex just crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. I sigh, glancing between him and Tv.

"Fine." I groan. "I'll come. Anything's better then the Doctors quest for true love or whatever."

Rex smiles and we head to the door, he calls out behind him to Noah. "Have fun with that math."

I look back at Noah who is muttering to himself. Suddenly he jumps from the stool after us. "All right, I'm coming!"

Rex transforms his legs into the floating vehicle thing, and Noah and I catch a ride while a bunch of Providence agents and Bobo use a jet. Noah and I jump off once we've arrived at our destination, a dock full of storage boxes and warehouses.

"Now see?" Rex asks. "It's a lot more fun once you just let go."

In front of us was a group of Providence agents shooting at an Evo which was throwing them around like toys.

Six runs towards it but Rex races past. "Dibs!"

He changes into the Blast Caster and starts throwing the EVO around. "That's a lot of agents for one EVO, doc!"

Holiday runs up to the EVO with a needle. What was she doing?!"They weren't here for the EVO, that ship was caring a new power core for Providence headquarters."

The ship she was talking about was the large one resting next to the doc. "It just happened to show up when we were unloading it."

"Talk about bad luck." I mutter to Noah as I hide behind a crate.

The EVO thing which apparently was playing possum, grabs Holiday and throws her at Rex.

Noah flinches. "And it's only getting worse."

The EVO grabs onto Rex's arm and pulls him into a bear hug, crushing him. Rex transforms his legs and kicks the EVO back into a bunch of crates.

"Did you see the mark?" Rex huffs out. I think he was referring the weird handprint I saw on the creature's shoulder. "I think Van Kleiss made that one."

"Why else do you think I've been trying to get a sample from it?"

"Oh…is that what she was doing…"I mutter.

"I just thought she was suicidal." Bobo shrugs as the dirty looks Noah and I give him.

"I don't know!" Rex exclaims. "Just being science-y?"

He launches himself at the charging EVO, smashing it the ground with his Punk Busters.

"YAH!" Noah, Bobo, and I cheer throwing our hands in the air.

"Does that work for you?" Rex calls out victoriously.

And then he get's punched in the face.

"Agh!" Rex struggles to hold the creature down as Holiday runs over and gets a sample.

"It'll do." She injects the needle. "Got it, you can cure it now."

The EVO flips Rex over on to the ground. Holiday crosses her arms. "Unless you like getting thrown around like that."

"No hurry." Noah calls out. "This is great!"

We both flinch as Rex and the EVO battle. "Ooooh!"

"I think it likes you!" I yell.

"Can't say the same!" Rex grunts as he places a hand on it and cures it.

The EVO reverts back into a man. He falls to the ground, groaning. "Ugh…what hit me?"

Rex offers a hand. "That would be…me."

"Don't worry you got a couple good shots in." I reassure the guy as I walk closer, who looks totally confused.

"Lucky shots." Rex corrects.

I roll my eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."

"You work here?" Six asks the men, he was wearing one of those orange work vests. And a really ugly beanie hat.

The man pushes Rex hand away as he gets up. "What do you think mister?" He then slowly walks away, muttering about his aching back.

Rex crosses his arms. "Yep. Sorry, was trying, you know, not to die." He turns to Six. "If he works at the dock that means Van Kleiss was here."

"Actually I think he's still is." Noah points out and we look up at the large ship where on top Kleiss and his cronies were walking out of a red portal.

Rex, being Rex, angrily charges forwards the rest of us hot on his heels.

 **BOOM!**

Suddenly there's an explosion on top of the ship, I raise my arm above my head for protection.

"They're after the power core!" Holiday realizes.

"All this for a battery?"

"Not just a battery." Holiday turns to Rex. "It could fuel a country the size of Abysus for a decade."

"That's going to be underneath my room?!" Rex cries as he transforms and flies off after them.

I didn't know what was going on up there. All I knew is I was almost crushed when one of Kleiss's EVO friends got thrown off the ship and nearly landed on me!

We hear lots of crashing and yelling and after a minute or so we spot Kleiss and Rex on the rooftop.

"How's Rex doing?" Noah asks.

I scream and dive out of the way as Rex get's throws over the ledge by Kleiss and hits the ground hard.

"Uh…not good…" I rush over to see if Rex is okay.

Noah gets a determined look on his face and runs off, curious I follow him. He runs over to one of those rolling machines that lifts crates using the tong at the front. He hops into the front seat. "It has the keys in!"

"No way." I mutter.

"Yes way." Bobo appears out of no where and hops on top of the thing.

"Come on, Rex needs us!" Noah insists.

That snaps me out of it. I run up beside Noah and jump on. There was only one seat so I hang on to the frame, leaning out the side of the vehicle.

Noah stomps on the pedal and we fly forwards, my hair blowing in the wind. We spot Van Kleiss walking towards Rex who had been knocked back on to the ground. Holiday and Six were busy trying to fend off the other EVO's.

"Get away from him you JACKWAD!" I yell as Noah hits Kleiss as Rex rolls out of the way. Kleiss gets slammed into the side of a ware house.

"How awesome was that?" Noah cheers.

"What part? You clobbering Van Kleiss or Van Kleiss clobbering me?" Rex asks as he walks towards us.

"Both actually."

"Hold on I need a second to think of a really good dig." Rex says as we watch Van Kleiss who looked unconscious.

I can't help myself. I lean forwards and poke his forehead. He doesn't move. I turn back to Noah and Rex who are both staring at me in horror. "I think he's unconscious."

Then I hear evil chuckling.

"AAAHHH!" I scream and jump back landing on the ground and nearly on to my butt, Rex grabs my shoulder to steady me.

"He's awake…" I mutter, eyeing Kleiss.

"Why are you _smiling_?" Rex asks. "We just _owned_ you!"

"Yeah, we shoved you into a wall!" I add.

"It's over Van Kleiss!" Rex exclaims, crossing his arms. "You lose!"

Noah gives him a deadpan look. "That was the best you could come up with? You lose?"

"That one…didn't count." Rex tries to defend himself. "He caught me off guard with the whole smiling thing, okay?"

"You'd be wise to consider delaying your celebration for the moment Rex." Kleiss mutters.

"Oh, what are we? Chopped liver?" I grumble to Noah who sighs, blowing a piece of hair out of his face.

"You're about to have your hands quite full." Kleiss says ominously.

"Oh really?" Rex snarks. "And how do you figure that?"

Kleiss looks up, and grins. Suddenly his hand shoots out and grabs on to Noah.

"NO!" I yell, pulling on Noah's arm as Kleiss's hand lights up.

Suddenly Noah starts…transforming and I let go of his arm, quickly backing away. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no…."

Noah had been turned into a large furry blond-ish grey EVO, with eyes covered by long fur and it-he, had a large mouth. It was so large the top of the vehicle pops away as he transforms. We all watch in horror as Noah stands up and roars, he had Van Kleiss's hand print on the right of his chest.

A red portal appears behind Kleiss, and before he steps through he says. "Here's the part where you must be thinking, did I think this plan through?"

"Noah!" Rex yells.

The Providence agents start shooting at him and he snarls.

"Stop!" I yell at them.

"Are you nuts?" Rex cries as Noah jumps on to a large container. "Stop it!"

Six runs towards us. "Stand down!" He orders the guards, who comply.

"Take it easy Noah." Rex climbs up on to the container. "You're going to be okay. This will all be over in a second."

He reaches out a hand to cure Noah but he starts to run off on top of all the boxes.

"Great, just great." Rex mutters, watching Noah run off towards the city.

"We have to go after him!" I exclaim.

"Go!" Six yells.

Rex nods, and transforms so he can fly off after Noah.

The rest of us run into a jet and take off after him. We follow Rex through the city as he chases after Noah.

Noah was acting like…a large dog. Oh I would so never let him live this down.

Noah smashes against the side of a bridge across a road, nearly toppling it. Rex turns towards the bridge, but looks back at Noah as he runs off.

The jet lands and Six and Bobo run out, taking care of the collapsing bridge. Six does this really cool trick with his magnetic swords to stabilize the bridge, but I don't stay to watch. I run after Rex as fast as I can, which was hard since I was on foot and he was _flying_.

I nearly crash into people on the sidewalk as I fly by. The good thing is after being with Rex on quite a few of his adventures I had gotten a bit faster. Which was a good skill to have when you were running after EVO's…or away from them.

"Sorry, sorry...pardon me! Sorry!" I cry, nearly running a guy over.

I ignore the guy's curses I try to follow the two as best as I can, it helps that they are literally leaving a pile of destruction and panic wherever they go.

I run past a smashed up looking building, passed a bunch of people screaming about giant EVO dogs and flying boys, and end up behind the building. I skid to a stop as I spot Rex grabbing on to Noah with the Blast Caster.

"Great, now I can rest." I mumble to myself, hands on my knees, huffing.

Rex yells as Noah just takes off again, dragging him behind.

"…Or not." Cursing under my breath I run after them. Soon I hear more footsteps and I glance behind me. Six and Bobo were hot on my heels, I hear a clanging sound and I turn back forwards to see Rex lying on his back next to a pole, his legs in the air.

"Ugh…everything's fine. Not a problem." Rex mutters. He was half upside down.

"If you can't stop him, it's going to be." Six points out.

Rex flips back upright, brushing himself off. "You know Six, you really need to learn to think positive."

He then runs off, transforming his legs into that float-y vehicle thing.

I glance at Six and shrug. "He's kind of right." I then charge off after Rex.

We all arrive in time to see Noah break an electrical cord and shock himself, and then stumble away. And for some reason Rex gives this old lady a cellphone.

"That friend of yours is a walking disaster." Bobo comments. "Starting to like the kid."

"We got this, go." Six orders and Rex runs off again.

Bobo and Six start fixing the wires, I want to chase after Rex but the old lady comes up to me.

"Are you with Providence?"

"Um, yeah." I nod.

"Did you know there is an EVO in my house, stealing my glasses and eating the cat food?" She says angrily.

"…Oh…uh, that's horrible." I mutter. I highly doubt that's all an EVO would do, this lady must be losing her marbles. Or more likely it was her cats doing it all.

"That young men just gave me this cell phone to call Providence, but I would like to have a word in person!" She shakes her hand with the phone at me.

"Oh, well, lucky for you there's a higher up Providence member right, the guy in green, not the monkey." I point at them and the old lady walks towards them shouting angrily.

While they're distracted I take off, I hear loud sounds of smashing and I spot two Providence jets shooting off towards where they had went. I arrive at a large hole in the ground, no Rex or Noah in sight. Maybe they had gone down?

I look down at the darkness; it looked like a bunch of subway tunnels.

"Here goes everything." I mutter and jump. I hit the ground hard, cursing under my breath.

Slowly I start to walk, picking a random direction trying to follow the different sounds but everything was echoing. I think I hear Rex's voice nearby though, calling out for Noah.

I start to run and I turn a corner only to get pushed to the ground when someone slams into my shoulder.

"Got you Noah!"

"It's me you idiot!" I scream, pushing at Rex who had tackled me.

Rex blinks in surprise, and then his eyes widen. "Rim?!" He jumps up like he was scalded.

"What are you doing here?"

"Following you, Noah's my friend to0." I answer honestly as he helps pull me up. "I take it you haven't found him yet."

Rex shakes his head. "No, it's like it's all a game to him…but maybe it should be."

I tilt my head in confusion. "Huh?"

"Okay Noah, I give up." He shouts. "Your it."

I roll my eyes. "Like that's going to w-"

We hear large footsteps and Rex mutters something about it better not being another train. I turn around, my eyes widening when I see a giant furry EVO running around the corner.

"All right!" Rex cries, as I jump out of the way.

"Oh no." Rex goes flying, hitting the ground hard.

"Ow…well what do you know, I'm it again." He mutters.

I take a few steps back, eyeing Noah. "Oh boy…"

Rex starts talking, but to Holiday I think. You know after this is over mabybe I should talk about me getting one of those earpiece thingies. Except having Six and Holiday talking in my ear all the time might get annoying…

"I got him, stand by." Rex orders, walking towards Noah his arm outstretched. "This isn't going to hurt, I promise."

He puts his hand on Noah and it light up but...nothing happens. "I'm too late." Rex gasps.

"What?" I cry.

"There was a time limit for the nanites Van Kleiss makes. After a certain amount of time it becomes permanent…" He explains sadly, hanging his head.

I feel tears come to my eyes as I watch Noah roll around happily. I hold them back but I can't shake the deep sadness, Noah was incurable.

"I don't believe this…" Rex mutters. "My best friend's an EVO forever."

We watch him shake around widely in the dirt. "Not even a cool EVO." Rex continues. "An annoying break stuff kind."

"Hey!" I scold him. "It's not Noah's fault!"

Noah let's out a huge burp and both Rex and I cover our noises.

"All that running around just wore me out." Rex suddenly starts talking and I glance at him curiously, noticing that he was talking to Holiday again.

"Hear that? It's me, not you." Rex announces happily to Noah, I sigh in relief.

"So he has a chance?" I ask.

Rex nods. "Yeah, just give me a-"

Noah starts spinning around, looking down the tunnel like he was suddenly scared of something.

"Don't-" Noah takes off, Rex and I fast on his heels.

"NO! No! Nononono!" Rex yells.

"NOOOAAAHH! Slow down!" I scream, but of course he doesn't.

Soon he disappears into he darkness, leaving Rex and I gasping for breath.

"I don't believe this." Rex mutters.

I nod, but turn around when I hear footsteps. "Uh…Rex?" I mutter, backing up and grabbing on to his arm in fear.

He turns and spots Van Kleiss walking towards us. "You really need a hobby."

"I thought we could settle things without distraction, here is good a place as any." He replies.

"I already kicked your butt once today, wanna go again?" Rex challenges, I stay close to the wall trying not to bring attention to myself. Maybe I'll get lucky and Kleiss will let down his guard so I can tackle him or something?

"The question is, are you?" Kleiss snarls. "It's hardly a fair fight."

"Oh, then I promise to go easy on ya." Rex snarks.

I laugh, trying to cover my mouth with my hand. Kleiss shoots me an annoyed look, there goes not bringing attention to myself.

But then Kleiss smirks.

"What? You don't think I have my powers or something?" Rex raises his arms, but I blanch, realizing that he didn't. He was so tried from chasing Noah his bio metrics were down, which is why he couldn't cure him so… oh shit. We were in trouble.

"I'm about to give you the pounding of the century!" Rex smacks his palm with a fist. Wow, he was a good actor, very good at bluffing. But unless he had a bazooka hidden in his jacket, we were totally screwed.

Rex glances at me, and I understand, as the same time we turn and run.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shiiiit!" I yell.

Rex slows down long enough to get behind me and start pushing on my back. "Go faster!"

"I'm tired!" I whine. "Have you heard of something called _stamina_?! Just run ahead of me! I'll be fine!"

Complete lie but hey, if I was going down no point in dragging Rex with me.

"No way!" Rex yells back, continuing to push me, trying to make me run faster.

I use up all the energy I can muster and pick up the pace. If we survived this I was going to take a looooong nap.

"Come on powers please come back!" Rex begs. We stop at a fork in the tunnel, there were five different tunnels we could choose.

I pant glancing at the tunnels. Which one? Rex runs past me but instead of heading into a tunnel he pulls on a lever, and the tracks change to connect to the right tunnel.

"Come on!" He yells, running towards the tunnel now connected with the tracks.

Very confused I follow behind him. "I hope you know what you're doing…" I mumble.

"Suuure I do!" He exclaims. He stops as a train goes by right behind us. We turn, and as the train goes by I see Van Kleiss walking down the tunnel towards us, his nails dragging at the wall make an annoying scratching sound. This was _so_ like a horror movie.

"I hope." I head Rex mumble as Kleiss gets closer.

Right as he's about to reach us another train goes by again, hopefully smacking into Kleiss, and Rex and I leap out of the way landing on the ground.

Slowly we get up, I groan. I was going to have so many bruises.

"What happened?" I whisper. "I couldn't see anything because of the train's bright lights nearly blinding me!"

"I think he's gone." Rex whispers back, getting up. I walk slowly backwards glancing around, and bump into something.

Gulping I turn around. "No…no he is not."

I yelp and jump back as Kleiss reaches out a hand for me, Rex grabs on to my arm and tugs me behind him. We start backing up until we're against a wall.

"Don't you have anything better to do then come after me all the time?" Rex gripes.

"Funny you should ask." He stretches out a hand and I squeeze my eyes shut. This was it. I was going to die (or get turned into a EVO) at the hands of a maniac with bad hair.

My eyes snap open when I hear a loud crunch; I stare in shock as Noah bites on Kleiss's arm. Kleiss yells and makes the funnies face as Noah swings him around like a rag doll.

"YeAH NOAH!" I cheer, throwing a fist into the air.

"Doc." Rex says into his mouth pieces as Kleiss get's slammed into the wall and floor. "How are those bio metrics looking now?"

I don't hear her response but I don't need to when Rex yells out "Ah yeah!" and transforms both arms into his Funchucks.

I get the hell out of the way when he starts spinning them, and _slams_ them into Kleiss sending him crashing on to the ceiling then back to the floor.

Rex crashes his hands together, sending some sort of blue energy pulse thing at Kleiss, which sends him once against crashing to the floor right after he got back up.

"Wicked…" I breath out, and Rex looks over his shoulder and shoots me a grin.

"Machines work!" He walks over to a startled looking Noah. "Just hope the important part does." His touches Noah and his hand starts to glow, and gradually the furry looking EVO reverts to a tired looking Noah.

He's on the floor on his hands and knees; he glances up at us, confused. "What just happened?"

"NOAH!" I shriek and fling myself at him, hugging him.

He topples to the floor. "Woah, woah, woah! What? Huh?"

I feel Rex's hand on my shoulder. "Okay, okay, give him some room to breath will ya?"

I grin, getting off poor bewildered Noah. "You're you again!"

"Do you remember anything?" Rex asks.

"It's kinda hazy." Noah mutters. "I mostly remember the feeling of…fun."

"Huh." Wasn't expecting that.

He turns and glares at Rex. "And I remember you punching me in the face."

"Yeas sorry about that." Rex shrugs, his arms raises slightly. "I thought you were trying to eat me."

"You were the funniest EVO." I laugh. "You were like a giant dog."

"Seriously?!" Noah whines glumly. "I wasn't even cool…"

We hear footsteps and I realize that Van Kleiss was gone. Damn!

"Come on, we got a rat to catch." Noah and I follow Rex down the tunnel until it opens up a bit, we were back at the place with the five tunnels.

There was a bright light shining from the twenty or so Providence agents pointing their guns at Kleiss. Six and Bobo were behind the agents and we had just arrived behind Kleiss.

Kleiss looks over at Rex and smirks.

"Why so happy?" Rex asks. "Is this the part where Breach shows up and rescues you?"

"Actually no." He replies. "This is the part where she takes your inadequately guarded power core."

Rex glances over at Noah and us, as Six tries to contact someone but they don't answer.

"Another decoy…"Rex realizes.

"I should share some of the credit with your friend over here." Kleiss gestures to Noah who looks creeped out. "He played the part to perfect."

"Gee, thanks." Noah mutters.

A red portal appears behind Kleiss. "Now this would be the part where Breach shows up."

Rex transforms his hands and lunges at him, but he's already disappeared. He growls and changes back, frustrated.

"I hate that guy." I mutter, crossing my arms.

"Join the club." Rex kicks at the ground.

Afterwards Noah, Rex, and I are walking down the street EVO Noah had rampaged through. The place was a mess, buildings broken, pieces of stuff everywhere, you name it.

"I can't believe I did all this." Noah mutters. "Sounds like I had the time of my life."

"Almost became your life." Rex adds. "Sorry about that."

"Are you kidding?" Noah exclaims, oddly happy. "Just knowing I was a rampaging EVO is cool…even if I wasn't the _coolest_ EVO. Just wish I could remember some of it…"

"Probably all over the news if you want a replay." Rex offers. "At least until you stepped on the news van." He gestures to the crushes up van on the side of the road.

The lady reporter and camera man were actually standing next to their demolished vehicle. The guy spots Rex and raises a shaky finger, pointing at him.

"Uh…time to go." I mutter as we run off as the guy yells curses after us.

Wow. Déjà vu.

We run until we're around the corner of a building, all of us stop, panting hard. Rex starts chuckling, than Noah, and soon we're all laughing like we didn't just nearly die at the hands of a maniac with bad hair.

Noah slides to the ground, leaning against the wall. "Well, guess it's back to quadratic equations."

"I have no idea what those are." Rex admits as he transforms into the Rex ride. Noah would be fine, he was near his house.

"Mind giving me a lift?" I ask.

"Hop on." I climb on to the back, wrapping my arms around his waist.

"We got places to be." Rex calls out. "See ya later!"

I wave as we drive off, but not back to Noah's, but to Providence. It was always fun driving Rex style, the wind blowing in my hair and Rex and I chattering the whole way. When we arrive we spot Six and Rex goes over to talk to him, be following behind.

"I know we're not supposed to be here. Even if it's a construction zone, we're moving back!" Rex announces.

"It's alright." Six surprisingly says. "You're not the only one who feels that way." He glances up at Holiday through a window into a controlroom, who waves at us.

"You'll get used to the cold showers." He adds. "Food, you're on your own. From the top?"

Rex nods. "From the top." He continues trying to build something with his nanites on his feet.

"What were you trying to build anyway?" Six asks.

"A water jet." Rex explains. "Oh, by the way, I need a new cellphone."

Right then Six's phone starts ringing and he answers it. "Yes…glasses?"

Rex glances at me and we both start snickering, he had told me all about the crazy lady who I had also coincidentally met on the ride here. We both quietly start to creep out of the room as Six tries to calm her down.

"How did you get this number?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks for the continuous support, especially to those who review almost every chapter!**

 **oOoOo**

"You have a mission _where_?"

"The middle of the Pacific!" Rex exclaims.

I stare at him in shock; he had nearly crashed into me when he was running down the halls. At first I thought maybe an EVO had gotten out but he explained to me that he and Six were going on some sort of mission.

"Hey, maybe I'll bring you back a souvenir!" He waves and takes off again.

"Don't drown!" I yell out after him. I quickly find Holiday, asking her about the mission.

"If you want you can help me keep tabs on them." She offers.

"Sweet!" I cheer.

Now I was in a room with her overlooking the aircrafts from a large window. There was a bunch of computers and monitors with agents typing away, and Holiday walking around checking up on things. I tried to stay out of the way, near the window. I wave to Rex and Six who were in the aircraft opposite us, getting ready. Rex waves back, he was really excited for this.

"You ready to launch?" Holiday asks them on a monitor.

"Am I ever!" Rex yells.

"Affirmative." Six nods.

The aircraft zooms off.

 **oOoOo**

Waiting for them to arrive at their destination, was boring! I tried chatting with some of the agents but they just kept to their work. Rude. I mean, I guess a bunch of lives and a mission was at stake, but still rude. When I had asked Holiday where, and why, exactly they were going to the Pacific she had said something about trash, and a sunken ship and getting a reactor core.

Okay?

Finally Rex and Six are near, and Holiday calls them on the screen again. I walk over behind her.

"We're coming up on the drop coordinates. I'll link you to the exterior camera feed." She informs them. "Welcome to Trash Island."

We had live footage from the ship to on another monitor screen. They were heading towards a bunch of islands made out of literal garbage in the middle of the sea. Ew.

"Cool…" Rex mutters.

"That's one word for it." I grimace. "Unhygienic and disgusting is another."

"How big is that thing?" He asks.

"About twice the size of Texas." Holiday replies, writing something down on clipboard. "The same currents that formed it have swept up every nanite in the South Pacific. Who knows how many EVO's are down there."

"Fun." I mutter sarcastically.

"Sea monsters!" Rex says excitedly. "What every explorer dreams of…"

"Something sunk that ship. Yet didn't harm the crew." Holiday says.

"Bonus. A sea monster with a conscious." Rex jokes.

"With intelligence." Holiday corrects. "Don't let your guard down, we can't communicate once your submerged."

"How long do we have?" Six asks.

"Depends on the conditions of the reactor core." A diagram of the ship show sup on another screen. "If the rods are cracked it could already be leaking radioactivity. But if the core melts down it's radioactive steam could travel to the mainland."

"That doesn't sound good." I mumble.

"It would be catastrophic." Holiday replies.

"Always the pessimist." I sigh.

"Yah, if it doesn't blow up first." Rex adds.

"No danger of that." Holiday informs. "But you'd never need a light night again."

"You sleep with a night light?" I ask, amused.

Rex blushes. "N-No! Ugh, can't we go now?!"

Holiday chuckles. "Bring me back a souvenir."

"Two souvenirs, and one reactor. Got it." Rex nods and the screen goes black.

"You think they'll be okay?" I ask.

Holiday sighs. "Hard to be sure, it's dangerous work but they can handle it. It's a shame though we can't communicate that deep under water…"

I nod, biting my thumbnail and staring at the black screen. They'd be okay…

 **oOoOo**

"Hi ya Doc!"

"Rex!" We both zip over to the monitor where Rex is waving. Six is sitting next to him.

"How did it go?" I ask.

"Mission accomplished!"

"Nice!" I cheer and Holiday smiles.

"Good job you two, return back headquarters."

"Course, oh and look! Souvenir!" Rex holds up…a thing. It was a tiny…fish…bug…thing that was moving and making weird noises.

"Uh…" I mutter, eyeing it in horror.

"It's an aquatic animal baby! Sorry Rim, I could only get one. Maybe you and holiday could share?"

"No, no, I'm good!" I give two thumbs up.

"Suit yourself." He shrugs.

"Were there any problems?" Holiday asks.

"Ehh." Rex shrugs. "Got stabbed in the shoulder by some purple coral thing trying to kill me. My nanites took care of the paralysis stuff though, no biggie."

"What?" I gasp.

"He does require medical attention for the wound though." Six adds.

Rex rolls his eyes. "I'm fiiiine!"

"You got _stabbed_ , you are not fine!" I argue, pointing at the screen.

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!...Wait."

"HA!" I exclaim as Rex angrily curses.

Six raises an eyebrow and Holiday sighs, rubbing her forehead. "Rex when you get here head to the medical wing, I'll send someone to patch up your shoulder."

He opens his mouth but Holiday cuts him off with a glare. " _No_ buts!"

He shuts up. Damn, wish I could glare like that.

 **oOoOo**

I was in a public room sitting on a couch looking through my textbook doing some homework Holiday assigned. She was a slave driver. I don't know where Rex had gone off too, after the mission and after he had given Holiday the…whatever it was, he had taken off.

Suddenly a flash of orange goes past me, I think I had just found Rex.

"Looklooklooklooklook!" I bounce a bit as Rex leaps on to the other end of the couch, thrusting a camera in my face.

"Huh?"

"Okay so…I'm not supposed to really tell anyone…" Rex says nervously.

"Huh?" I repeat.

Then Rex spills the whole crazy story about what _really_ happened on his mission. The whole thing with Surge and all the crazy fish people.

After he's done talking I stare at him, my jaw nearly touching the floor. "Y-Th-H-…woah."

He nods. "Yah. I wasn't supposed to keep any pictures…but I just had to keep these ones!" And once again he shoves the phone into my hands.

I fumble with it and finally get a good look at the screen, and go through his pictures. There were three pictures of Six, one of a starfish getting thrown at his face, another with his mouth open in surprise, a star fish on his forehead and him reaching out for the phone, and the last was Rex waving to the camera as Six still tries to grab the phone from him.

I laugh as I scroll though them. "I'm glad you did, these are priceless! You hardly ever see the guy without his poker face on!"

"I know!" Rex agrees.

 **oOoOo**

Dammit Rex! He totally took my history textbook, I'm sure of it! Good think I knew his code, I remember him typing it in once. I enter his room and am a bit surprised by what I find. There was a white duffle bag with a bunch of clothes in it next to the bed still open. Why was Rex packing? Wait when did he even get back I thought he was on a mission fighting some EVO somewhere with Bobo?

I notice his red jacket lying next to the duffle bag, a very familiar textbook underneath. "I knew it." I whisper and lift up the jacket to grab the book, smiling in triumph.

I glance at the jacket eyeing it, hmm…I had always wanted to do this…I glance behind me, no one was around. Maybe he was still on that mission and had done this before he left.

I put the jacket on; it was pretty big for me, especially in the shoulders. I giggle at the absurdity of the whole thing. Okay. Now I had my fun, I should take it off…but first…

"Hey I'm-" I stop, trying to make my voice deeper. "Hey I'm Rex! Look at me, I crush things with metal fists!"

Laughing quietly to myself I stand up and make a few funny poses, pretending I'm changing into Rex's machines. "Take that! And This!" I punch at the air and jump up and down crazily. Why was this so much fun?

"And that! And that!" This was so stupid. I should stop…but it was so fun! Now I get why Rex destroyed everything, I bet doing it for real with your own giant metal fists would be awesome!

"I got giant smack hands!" I yell hitting the air. "Yah! You want more?!"

I hear a muffled laugh and I whip around, going red in the face. Shitshitshitshit.

Rex is staring at me, a hand covering his mouth, eyes sparkling with amusement.

Okay. Someone please kill me.

"…How long have you been standing there?" I ask in a high pitched voice.

"Long enough." He replies, raising an eyebrow. "You really taught that air a thing or two, and I _so_ do not sound like that!"

I don't think my face could get redder. I whip the jacket off and throwing it at his head, and bend down to grab my textbook at lightning quick speed.

"I just wanted my book." I mumble, looking down and trying to speed past making for a quick exit.

"Wait." He grabs my arm and I glance back. His mouth twitches and he start laughing again. I groan and tug on my arm. "Let gooooo!"

Wait, sorry." He tries to hold back the laughter. "I-I just want to see if you want to come to a party."

This catches my attention. "Party? What party?"

"There's one in the desert happening, bunch of kids are age, wanna come?"

How did he know about this party? And… "Are Six and the others okay with this?"

Rex let's go of me and shrugs, putting his jacket on. "What they won't know won't hurt them."

"Why are you packing for just a party?"

He shrugs again. "Better to be prepared, right?"

I hesitate, and he tries to sway me.

"Come on, what else do you have going on, on a Friday night? History homework?"

He had a point…

"Or are you going to pretend to be me again?"

I angrily glare at him as he smirks. "Okay, okay, fine! Just let it go!"

He smiles. "Cool. Oh and Bobo's coming too."

The TV suddenly turns on, White Knight shows up on screen just as Bobo walks in. "My office, now."

"Great, what does pale guy want?" I mutter, walking out with the others.

Bobo shrugs. "Probably going to chew us out for something. Remember, he has no evidence!"

I nod slowly. "Uh, okay."

We arrive in a room with a screen on the wall where White Knight was waiting. This was his 'office.' Except obviously he wasn't actually in the room, Rex speaks first.

"Hope this won't take long, White Knight. We were just heading out for a big night of…paper work."

I roll my eyes. "Nice catch."

"Change of plans." White Knight replies. "You'll be attending a underground party in the Sonoran Desert."

Wait, wasn't that _same_ party we were going to anyways? Whoa, coincidence much! And…why was I being sent too?

"This better not be some sort of punishment, you know, where you offer something cool then yank it away to prove your twisted point." Rex says dryly.

"Do you want me to send another agent?" White Knight asks sarcastically.

"No,no,nonono!" Rex quickly says. "We're cool!"

"Oh-um…" I interject, confused. "Why…why am I being sent?I mean…doesn't Rex usually do the missions?" I ask, glancing over at him.

White knight nods. "That is usually true, but a key point to this mission is to blend in, monkey aside."

"Hey!"

Kngiht ignores Bobo's annoyed cry. "Which you will more if you were two teenagers together than one, pretending as if it is a date may be even better."

"A date?!" We both shout out, glancing at each other then back to the screen, cheeks red. Bobo snickers.

White Knight sighs. "Yes, a date where two people in a relationship enjoy each others compa-"

"We know what a date is!" We both yell at the same time.

"Look, just…" Rex waves for a second, but quickly changes the subject to safer topic. "Why? Why are we being sent there?"

"Because the entertainment is being provided by a group of EVO's."

"What?" I gasp.

"How progressive." Bobo mutters, rubbing his chin.

"So let me guess." Rex cuts in. "You want me to shut them down."

"With civilians there we can't just send in the tanks." Knight says almost reluctantly. "I need you to observe the situation and report back so I can decide how to handle this."

"So you assigning us…to party…just the three of us?"Rex clarifies.

"Sweet!" I mumble. Best mission ever!

"Actually there will be five of you on this one." White Knight replies.

"Oh no!" Rex shakes his head. "No! No way are you going to make us bring Six to a party!"

I nearly laugh out loud of the thought of Six at a party. Oh man…he would so be out of his comfort zone, would probably prefer slicing up EVO's.

"Six isn't who I had in mind."

The door opens and a familiar girl walks through.

"Kenwyn?"

"So you met." White Knight interjects "Agent Jones just graduated from the academy, top of her class."

"Whoa, never thought I would see you again." I nod to her.

"Same." Kenwyn smiles. "Excited to be working with you guys, and thank you for your trust in me sir." She addressed Knight. "I promise to do my part to make out team as focused, and efficient as possible."

"Is it too late to get Six instead?" Rex whispers. I sigh. Oh boy…

"But wasn't there going to be five people?" I ask.

"Right here sugar."

Oh no. Oh no no no.

Lo and behold Reed also walks in after Kenwyn.

"You?!" Both Rex and I cry.

"H-How, what, who-" I stutter, bewildered.

"Mr. Wildren's-" His last name was Wildren? "Uncle is one of our top agents in working on another mission in the far South, while Wildren's grades may not be as top notch as Kenwyn's-"

Reed rolls his eyes, White Knight continues. "They were still superb enough that because of his Uncles position we all think it best to give him some experience on the field, perhaps it will help evolve his abilities."

"Great." I mutter sarcastically.

"What, don't want to work with me? That hurts." Reed places a hand over his heart in mock horror.

I groan to myself. This was going to be fun…

 **oOoOo**

After we all change (except Rex and Bobo) into more causal party clothes we head out into the Sonoran desert. Since I had never really _been_ to a party I tried my best guess at what to wear, which was a nice black flowy skirt, and a dark green loose shirt that had only one strap around my shoulder. I didn't know what to do with my hair so I left it untied as always. Kenwyn went with something a little more…refined, a white shirt with a blue blouse over it and black pants. Reed wore black ripped jeans and a dark blue shirt, saying it was going to 'drive the girls wild'.

Rex raises a pair of Providence binoculars to look at the cave on the side of a cliff where the party was being held.

"You're not thrilled about this, are you?" Kenwyn suddenly says. "About me on the team?"

I nervously glance anywhere at her, even though the question was directed at Rex. It's not that I hated her or anything, I even figure her for the jerk move with the collar back at Camp, but…she was sort of…a stick in the mud, to be blunt.

"What?" Rex cries, probably his great acting skills at work. "No-I-it's just…"

"Worried I'm gonna cramp your style?" Kenwyn crosses her arms.

"Never crossed my mind." Rex lies.

There's awkward silence for a few seconds, only filled by Reed's annoying snickers. He was enjoying this way too much.

Then Rex transforms into the Rex Ride. "Ok, everyone on…this is going to be crowded."

Bobo hops on at the front, Kenwyn behind Rex, while Reed and I are right at the back, feet swaying over the side.

"I'm not here to have fu-" Kenwyn is cut off as Rex shoots off.

"Geez! I exclaim, trying not to fall off.

Reed slings an arm around my shoulder. "Don't worry darling, I got you!"

I glare at him and throw his shoulder off harshly. "It's _RIM_ and _don't_ touch me!"

Reed laughs and makes a clawing motion. "Rawr!"

"Hey!" Rex yells, trying to look back at us. "Everybody keep their hands to themselves, means you Reed!"

Reed just rolls his eyes and scoffs.

We arrive at the entrance of the cave and get off, Rex transforms back to normal. Rex, Kenwyn, and Bobo huddle on the left side while Reed and are on the right, peeking into the cave.

"Fun." Kenwyn comments, as we stare at the cave full of people dancing, multi coloured lights flashing around, and pumping music so loud it was kind of hard to hear anything but.

Cautiously we enter the cave, getting to the front would be impossible with this huge crowd so we stay near the back. I have to keep moving around a bit since it was hard to see up front with so many people in the way. At the front was a stage with some weird objects on it, a barrel, a car, etc, and a giant EVO guys. He was a brown-ish colour and was tall and big, and he claps his hands together and they seem to…generate electricity. Then his hands seem to enlargen, and he grabs onto a heavy looking metal box and a barrel. Using his electricity he makes them explode!"

"Wicked!" I murmer."

"Dangerous." Kenwyn frowns.

He then leaps up on to the car and starts to generate electricity on to it.

"That's got to be a tough act to follow." Bobo comments. "He doesn't even leave you a stage."

Kenwyn is nervously looking around, obviously feeling very out of place. I kind of felt the same way, though Reed looked totally relaxed.

"Hey, I was a rookie once too." Rex tries to comfort her. "Just relax, your with a couple of pros, right Rim, Bobo?"

"Uh…" A pro? Me? Ha. Haha. Funny.

"Speaking of your monkey pal, he's gone." Reed announces and Rex and I turn to look at where Bobo was, but Reed was right.

"Wha- Bobo?" I call out, glancing around.

"You don't have to worry about me." Kenwyn states, walking past us. "I can pull my own weight."

Rex shrugs. "If you say so."

The two enter a tunnel on the side of the wall. "Should I follow them?" I murmer to myself.

"Or, you can stay here with me." Reed say slyly.

"…Follow them." I quickly run off after them, Reed following behind whining about how cruel I was.

We catch up to them fast, the tunnel was heading towards the stage, and through the holes in the wall I could see the crowd cheering.

"Are we allowed in here?" I wonder out loud.

Rex shrugs. "Probably not."

Well okay then.

But maybe we were since we spot a few people milling around in the tunnel too. "K, ta, party people!" Rex yells, waving at them. They glance over at him, confused.

Rex was leading but Kenwyn grabs on to his arm, stopping him. "In simulation, we always started a infiltration by establishing focus points."

"By whating a what?" I blurt out.

Reed just scoffs. "So glad we got party girl with us."

"What? Nonono." Rex shakes his head. "Forget what you learned at the academy. In the field you need to go with the flow. That's what works for me."

He's about to start walking again but Kenwyn stops him. "If we want to maintain our cover and get the job done we really need to set up our focus points."

"Yah well…I don't even know what that means." Rex admits. "But I do know that I've been doing this job a lot longer then you. So…"

"I graduated the academy as a lieutenant." Kenwyn argues. "So I'm the ranking officer here."

I just awkwardly stand behind her fiddling with my skirt, and Reed is leaning against a wall looking bored. This was going well.

Kenwyn walks past Rex and he groans. "Why couldn't it have been Six?"

When we catch up to Kenwyn theres a…squid looking guy talking to her.

"Hey! Kenwyn, so I see you met Skwydd." Rex gestures to the guy.

Oh, Skwydd. Rex had told me about him, about how we used to actually be in a gang but then lost his memories, and apparently he was a jerk and betrayed them…but then saved them so everything was cool. He had shrugged it off but the whole memory loss thing was freaky, what if it happened again since it had already happened a few times before he met me. He had told me he was keeping this journal though where he wrote everything so that way if he lost his memories at least he would know his past and how he was.

"Thanks for the tip." Rex says to Skwydd. OH, that's how he knew about the party…I was wondering. "This party is awesome! He's a friend of mine from Hong Kong. We go way back." He explains to a very confused Kenwyn and a creeped out Reed. "Squid this is Kenwyn, Rim, and Reed."

"Charmed, she your uh, date?" Skwydd asks Rex.

"Date? No, nonono! We just work together at Providence!"

"Ah." Skwydd nods. "So, she's your date." He gestures to me.

We both sake our heads furiously. "Uh, nope, just working together!"

Rex nods. "Yah, we're on a mission, we're undercover."

"Rex." Kenwyn hisses.

"Don't mind her." Rex shrugs. "She's a little skichy around EVO's."

"Sorry, it's just," Kenwyn raises her hands up. "This is new for me."

"It's new for a lot of people." A new voice speaks up.

"Oh great, another weirdo." I hear Reed murmur as he crosses his arms.

Kenwyn whips around and from behind her comes out a guy with blond afro looking hair in a white jacket. "That's why we're doing it." He had a strange accent.

"This," Skwydd gestures to the guy. "Is Atude. Atude, this is Rex, Rim, and Reed."

"Ah, I like the R's." He nods, giving both me and Rex a hug, though Reed quickly backs off before he can get to him.

"Res is here from-"

Kenywn interrupts Squid. "Milwaukee! Wisconsin! He's here from Milwaukee Wisconsin!"

Nice save, telling him we're from Providence might not be the smartest move.

"Well, no matter where you're from," Atude talks as he carries a speaker. "Welcome."

Kenwyn walks off a few steps speaking into her phone about getting a background check for Atude.

"Don't forget total hippie and possible criminal master mind." Rex calls.

"We got to keep moving." Kenwyn states. "White Knight will be expecting a report in."

Reed sighs , hands in his pockets he slouches and follows after her mumbling about buzzkills.

"Yah, I'll catch up." Rex yells as I follow after the two.

Excpet when Kenwyn realizes Rex isn't following she marches back. I glance at Reed and shrug as he groans. When we arrive back there Skwydd had just made a…ink cloud thing that looked like Rex. Which was pretty cool, except that Kenwyn walks into it, dispersing it.

"I've reconned this room, let's go," She orders.

"She's a load of laughs." Skwydd comments as she walks past.

"Yeah, first time we met she pretty much tried to kill me." Rex adds. "Funny, last time we met you tried to kill me too."

Skwydd shrugs, smiling sheepishly. "It's the thought that counts."

"If you two are done with your love fest." Reed calls out, impatient, already walking after Kenwyn.

I sigh and follow behind as Rex waves to Skwydd. "Well, I got to go at least pretend to be on a mission."

"Oh ya 'bout that." Skwydd says. "I figured since you're a big secret agent and all you'd want to know."

I pause, turning to glance at Skwydd, he had gotten serious.

"Some of the performers have been getting threats." He explains.

"What kind of threats?" Rex asks.

I roll my eyes. "The warm and fuzzy kind, I'm sure."

"The usual." Skwydd replies. "Die Evo, die. Nothing to get excited about."

Geez. I wouldn't want to find out what _was_ worth getting excited about.

"I'll check it out." Rex promises as we start to walk out.

"Hey Rex, it's really cool that you're here." We hear Skwydd yell after us, and Rex smiles.

We catch up with the others who are watching the next EVO on stage through a hole in the wall, we were behind the stage. It was way darker here in the tunnels then out there in the cave. The next EVO was a tall guy with grey-ish skin and long black hair wearing a wrapped up cloak thing. He starts to stretch his neck, and whips part of his cloak aside to reveal a tentacle thing protruding from his chest with a _mouth_ at the end.

Ew.

He takes a bird from his pocket and lets it fly free, the tentacle thing chases it, growing longer and eats it in one gulp. And then the guy starts choking and out from his own mouth the bird flies out again. Poor bird. The crowd goes wild.

"Never seen a crowd scream at a EVO and not want it dead." Comments Kenwyn.

"I'm not going up there!"

We turn to the little room near us, where some of the perfoming EVO's were waiting to go.

"Oh Mouse, please." Atude drawls. "I haven't even seen you perform yet!"

Mouse was, well, a very mouse looking EVO, had a mouse head and everything except was wearing clothes and standing up right. And human sized. Standing beside Atude was another EVO with three faces and four arms and kind of looked like a giant…lump. There was another seating on a bench but they were covered by a blanket so I couldn't get a good look.

"Why not share your beauty with us?" Atude says excitedly.

Mouse shakes her head and runs off.

"She's scared." One off the faces on the lump EVO states.

"Probably stage fright." Says another.

"We'll go instead." Says the third.

"No we won't!"

"Yes we will!" They argue with each other and walk off. Wow. That had got to get annoying.

Atude gasps. "Thank you Thump!"

Kenwyn is busy typing something into her phone and Rex shakes his head and climbs up a piece of wall and into a tunnel.

"Rex?" I ask.

"Just going to ask that Thump guy about the threats, be right back." He calls back as he crawls through.

Kenwyn angrily sighs and glares at me. "What threats?"

Oh right. They didn't know about that.

"Uh…" I glance nervously at the tunnel. "Ask Rex?"

She sighs again and climbs up after him.

I glance at Reed who shrugs. "Some party." He mutters.

I nod. "Not exactly the blast of the century."

"Right!" He agrees. "Can't believe I'm stuck with a monkey, a teacher's pet, and a machine freak. You're the only thing keeping me sane!"

"Really? We were just having a semi-civil convo and you have to go and…" I wave my hands in the air and sigh.

He opens his mouth to retort but pauses when new music starts pumping through. We glance through the hall, and on stage is the EVO with three faces and he was…beat boxing?

"Aaaand things just got weirder." Reed hangs his head in defeat, then looks up at me. "How do you take all of this? You're friends with these freaks!"

I cross my arms. "They aren't freaks!"

"You're friends with a monkey that talks and has a terrible sense of fashion, and a dude who can turn his body parts into machine parts." Reed dead pans.

I roll my eyes. "They're…special. And I get used to the crazy…sometimes. Sort of. Okay not really, but…" I shrug. "They really aren't bad. At all."

"If you say so…" Reed mutters.

Our conversation is interrupted by a scream as panicked people rush by us.

"What? What's going on?" I yell but they ignore me as Reed plasters himself to a wall to avoid being trampled.

Kenwyn and Rex hop out of the tunnel and race off towards where the scream came from, Reed and I on their heels. We stop dead in our tracks when we spot Skwydd lying in a pool of ink, vomiting it up. There was ink all over the walls, floor, and ceiling!


	11. Chapter 11

"SHIT!" Reed yells as we all charge forwards.

"Skwydd!" I scream, hand outstretched. Suddenly I can't run, I look down and watch in horror as the ink from the floor starts to trail up my legs binding it in place like-like as if it was alive! Glancing around I can see both Reed and Kenwyn in my position, struggling behind me, and upfront Rex had it the worse. He had been lifted off the ground with tendrils of ink and was being wrapped up in them, they were even starting to cover his face!

Skwydd is limping around, the stuff spewing from his mouth. He had no control over it. A wave of the stuff hit's Reed, Kenwyn, and I, sending us falling to the floor.

"This is _so_ disgusting!" Reed cries out, struggling to get up as the ink holds him to the floor.

Rex transforms his arm into a sword and slices through the ink, tendril things. He races over and starts slicing at the tendrils holding me in place. He grabs my arm and lifts me up; transforming his legs into the Punk Busters, carrying me he rushes over to a dry part of the room near the entrance and sets me down. Then he runs over to help the others. He carries back Skwydd and Kenwyn, then goes back for Reed. Reed collapses to the ground, huffing. "Last? Really?"

Ignoring him Rex yells at the nearly unconscious Skwydd. "Skwydd, what are you doing?!"

Skwydd growls, shaking his head back and forth. His eyes were glowing a strange yellow colour. They shine brightly then he suddenly goes limp.

"That can't be good." I state, starring in worry.

"I don't understand…" Rex mutters. "Skwydd never been able to make his nanite ink solid before!"

"He's out cold." Kenwyn states checking his pulse. "We're not getting any answers out of him."

"Oh my god." Reed whispers in horror as I glance over.

"What? What?!" I say slightly hysterical.

"There are _ink stains_ on my jeans!" He cries in horror, gesturing at his pants.

"Wha- YOU'RE JEANS ARE BLACK!" I shriek, throwing my hands into the air.

Kenwyn ignores us, instead deciding to lecture Rex. "Ya know when you need to talk to a suspect, there are methods of restraint that-"

"First of all, I didn't even hit him!" Rex defends himself. "It was like he was so amped up he burnt out! And second, he's not a suspect, he's a victim!"

"It doesn't matter." Kenwyn declares. "I'm making the call to White."

"Wait, what Skwydd did…something's not right." Rex frowns.

"I agree, the EVO's here are obviously a threat." Kenwyn states.

"No!" Rex whines. "I mean it doesn't add up! Skwydd was happy!"

I follow the two as they get up and start walking, ignoring Reed's whining about his 'ruined' pants.

"Okay it's Skwydd." Rex concedes. "Maybe that's an exaggeration."

"I'm not getting a signal." Kenwyn mutters after her phone doesn't work.

"But he was as happy as I've ever seen him." Rex continues as Kenwyn inspects the ink blocking our path."Why would he mess with that?"

"Maybe you're friend went a little loco." Reed suggests, waving his finger in a circle beside his head. Kenwyn was trying, and failing, to rip at the ink. I try to help her by also pulling it, but it was strong!

"Can you help with this?!" Kenwyn barks at the two.

"In a second." Rex mutters. "Look someone did this to Skwydd, probably same guy who made those threats."

I continue to pull at the ink but it wasn't budging, even Reed gives it a go, but same result.

"Rex! Stop stalling and help!" Kenwyn barks.

"I am." Rex replies.

"Suuuure." Reed mutters.

"White Knight want's answers." Rex continues. "Not questions. Trust me on this!"

Kenwyn pauses, then looks back at Rex. "The minute another civilian is in danger, we're making the call."

"Come on." Rex says smugly. "Nothing bad will happen, you got me here!"

I groan, still tugging at the stupid ink. "Help would be very much appreciated!"

Rex transforms his right arm into the sword again. "Well that's reassuring." Kenwyn mutters sarcastically.

I get out of the way as Rex easily starts hacking at the ink.

"Show off." Reed crosses his arms as we follow Rex out of the room leaving Skwydd behind.

"He'll be in there until he wakes up." Kenwyn says.

We peek out at the crowd, some of which were leaving as Atude panicks. "No, no everybody's leaving!"

"If this thing breaks up the guy who did this to Skwydd is going to get away." Rex glances back at us.

"Maybe that's good." Kenwyn replies. "No one else here will get hurt."

"But then there'll be nothing else for us to do but go home!" Rex exclaims. "And I haven't got my party on yet."

"The horror!" Reed yells sarcastically.

Rex shoots him a glare, and dives through a small hole in the wall that leads on to the stage.

"What is he doing?" I cry, peering through the hole.

"Let me see!" Reed whines, trying to stand beside me.

"Wait!" Rex yells out to the crowd. "There's been a small disturbance, but…everything's cool now! So uh…party on!" He strikes a pose.

"…Idiot!" I mutter, Kenwyn and Reed nod in agreement.

The crowd wasn't convinced, Rex tries again. "Come on, it'll be cool!" He changes his hands into the Smack Hands.

Kenwyn facepals. "What does the word undercover mean to him?!"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." I sigh.

"That's all he got?" I hear a crown member yell out. "I'm out of here."

"Tough crowd." Reed mutters.

Rex wasn't done yet though. He changes into the Boogie Pack and soars up, we all strain our necks to see where he's going. He transforms his arm into the sword and slices a giant stalactite and it falls towards the audience.

I gasp but Rex catches it with his smack hands, landing back on to the stage. He places the stalactite, flat side down, on to the stage. The crowd cheers. Rex pulls his goggles down over his eyes, guess he was getting serious. He transforms back into

the giant sword, and then turns the top part into a buzz saw, slicing the stalactite into different pieces as the music pumps louder.

The end result is a sculpture of him, with Smack hands clenched into fists. He starts bowing dramatically and even blows a kiss as the crowd cheers louder.

"Egotistical much?" Reed comments.

I elbow him. " _You_ should not be talking!"

We run out of our hiding spot as Rex walks back into the tunnels via a different route, as we quickly meet up again.

"Nice!" I exclaim, high fiving him.

"Eh, you need to work on you're flying a bit." Reed shrugs, I roll my eyes.

"I guess it's safe to say you just blew our cover." Kenwyn grumbles.

"Or," Rex argues. "We showed up with a talking monkey, I'm kind of world famous, and wearing that outfit you totally blend." He says sarcastically.

Oooh. He had a point there, I guess. But still…oooh!

"Haven't you ever heard of dressing for success?" Kenwyn shoots back.

"It's a good day when I can find my socks." Rex mutters. "So, what's next?"

Kenwyn groans, then starts typing on her phone. "If we're going to catch our guy, we need to start interviewing suspects. Most important thing is to isolate them first, so they can't run when-"

"Hey Thump!" Rex waves at Thump who I just notice is hiding behind a piece of rock near another tunnel. Instead of answering Thump quickly darts away, and Rex tales off after him.

"Or we could just do it your way." Kenwyn grumbles, racing off after him.

"Uh…what just happened?" I mutter.

"We just got left in the dust. Again." Reed sighs, throwing his hands in the air. "Come on…"We chase after the two down the tunnel, and arrive in a more open part of it. Rex and Kenwyn had Thump surrounded, but right when it looks like they might talk there suddenly electrocuted!

"Over there!" Reed shouts, pointing as a figure runs off down a different tunnel.

"Wasn't that-"

"Mouse?!" Kenwyn interrupt me, racing after her.

"It's always the furry ones!" Rex growls, racing past Reed and I on his Rex Ride. It was so hard to _see_ it was freaking dark in here!

I hear what sounds like gun fire and Rex yell in pain. When we get there Mouse is shooting at Kenwyn with some sort of laser gun as Kenwyn tries to dodge.

I spot Rex lying on the ground, "REX!" I scream as I dart behind a piece of stone, Reed dives to the ground as a shot almost hits him.

Kenwyn leaps at the wall, then kicks off, somersaulting towards Mouse and kicks the gun out of her hands.

Okay, cool!

Mouse falls to the floor and Kenwyn leaps at her and knocks off her…head? The mouse head rolls off revealing a women's face underneath, she looked kind of old-ish and had grey hair. Maybe in her fifties?

Kenwyn pins her down to the ground and Reed runs over to them as I dart over to Rex.

"You okay?" I ask, grabbing his arm and helping him to his feet.

He rubs his head but nods. "I'm good."

"She's no EVO." Kenwyn announces.

"Of course not." She replies. "I'm the furthest thing from an EVO, I am a human being." She says in an incredibly snotty voice.

"Oh lovely, things just got a thousand times more complicated." Reed groans as Kenwyn ties her up. We start leading her down the tunnels as she rants.

"It's disgraceful what you're doing here, EVO's and humans should not mix!"

"Lady, you tried to _shoot_ us!" I argue. " _That's_ disgraceful!"

"You're responsible for Skwydd, weren't you?" Kenwyn asks. "What did you do to him?"

"Just shining a little light on how dangerous his kind can be." She declares.

"By juicing his powers?" Rex exclaims. "What were you thinking?"

"Most inorganic material explodes when given that kind of molecular jolt." She explains as we pass by a few confused looking party people. I hope no one got the wrong idea and thought we were kidnapping grandma. "But not nanites, they convert the energy into power that amplifies a EVO's abilities to uncontrollable levels."

"What are you? A science teacher or something?" Rex asks.

"I prayed, twenty five years."

"Huh?" Both Reed and I glance at each other, equally baffled at her answer.

"But if you're not an EVO, how did you do that to Skwydd?" Kenwyn asks.

"Oh I didn't do it, sweetie." She replies. "My partner did."

"Partner?" I mutter, glancing up as a strange sound starts echoing off the walls. Through a hole I can see on stage strange beams of light shooting at the long neck EVO from before. The light was coming from somebody's hands, the EVO from the beginning, the one who could make things explode!

The other EVO howls, his eyes glowing. People start to panic and run, streaming by.

"We have to get these people out of here!" Kenwyn cries out as Atude runs towards us, and Rex charges to the stage. I take off after Rex as Kenwyn gives the old women to Atude, under orders to hold her tight.

Poor Atude was baffled. "Who _are_ you?"

Rex tackles the EVO, and it roars and struggles it's weird tentacle thing waving about. It knocks Rex off and Reed and I jump at it, trying to pin it down. Kenwyn runs to the crowd trying to get them out of the cave, yelling at them to exit in a orderly manner. They ignore her.

I struggle to hold the thing's right arm down while Reed grabs the other, I quickly duck as the tentacle thing nearly bites my face off. "Grab it!"

"You grab it!" Reed yells, staring at the thing in disgust.

Suddenly the thing roars and the next thing I know Reed and I get flung back and go crashing to the ground. I slide past Rex who get's up and charges at the thing with his smack hands but stop when we hear a loud boom.

I don't know what had happened but somehow part of the cave's ceiling was crashing down on top of the people trying to get out! Rex changes into the Boogie Pack and flies over. He then quickly changes back into Smack Hands and tries to catch the falling rocks.

"No!" I gasp, dust rises up and all I can see is a mountain of rubble dividing Reed, Kenwyn, and I from the others.

Kenwyn tries to call for back up but it seems there's no signal.

"Rim, eyes on the EVO!" Reed yells and I look back to see him trying to once again tackle the out of control EVO.

I get distracted when I hear a buzzing noise and Rex bursts through the rubble using the smack hands combat drill.

"RIM!" Reed yell again and I stare in horror as the EVO passes by Reed and instead goes after a couple of civilians.

"Oh no you don't!" I scream running after it. I jump on it's back pounding on it's head. "Leave them alone!"

Reed pauses unsure what to do as another EVO, the one that explodes stuff, was charging at Atude and the women. He spots Rex flying over to help me and goes to help Atude with Kenwyn who is already running over.

I curse as the EVO ignores my pounding and runs down a tunnel after the other teenagers, I lose sight of the other. I hold on tight trying not to get thrown off. "As plans go this was not one of my best!" I scream.

The thing pauses in a larger part of the tunnel, with porta potties on either side. I spot Bobo and try to warn him. "Bobo! RUN!"

"Huh?" He chokes out as the EVO grabs him with the tentacle thing and lifts him into the air. "WHOOOAHH!"

It starts whipping him around and I do get thrown back. "AAA- oof!" To my surprise Rex catches me, and settle me back to the ground.

"You all right?"

"I'm fine, but he's not!" I exclaim, pointing at Bobo.

"Do me a favour, will ya?!" He yells. "HIT HIM!"

"I don't wanna hurt the guy, it's not his fault!" Rex argues. One of the porta potty doors open and I spot a blond guy who was very confused poke his head out. He glances at us then turns around and sees the crazy EVO. He shrieks and slams the door closed as Bobo get's smashed into it. A second later he opens it again and takes off.

"What do we do?" I ask, panicking.

Suddenly the EVO get's electrocuted, yellow tendrils of electricity crawling up him and hit's Bobo who screams in pain. The EVO collapses, dropping Bobo to the ground.

"He'll live." I turn to see Kenwyn at the other side, holding a gun. Nice! "If any of us do."

"Let's get the hell out of here, there's a freaking living ticking time bomb!" Reed yells as something explodes behind them and they run towards us, an EVO after them.

"Now that he's amped himself, he's gonna explode." Kenwyn explains, referring the EVO that could explode stuff. "And take everyone here with him! That's what mouse wants!"

"Oh come on!" Rex cries. "That nutjob makes her big villain speech and leaves that part out?"

"Enough chatting, more shooting!" Reed yells as the EVO walks towards us.

Kenwyn shoots but it seems to have no affect, he does something to himself, not totally sure what, but he seems to bulk up!

"Oh fabulous." I mutter as it comes towards us. "Anybody have a plan?"

"Punch him till he drops." Rex states, transforming into Smack Hands.

"Is he always so… smash-y?" Reed asks.

I sigh. "Yep."

Rex punches at the EVO, but his fist breaks and he gets thrown back. He lands on his feet and charges it again, except this time with the giant sword. He hits it right in the face, and where it got hit lights up and Rex once again get's thrown back, his sword breaking.

"You okay?" I ask as he groans and get's up.

"Been better." He mutters as the EVO roars. "If I hit him, he blows up my machines. If he hits me, he'll make my EVO powers go berserk!"

"Oh shit, that would be _bad_!" I blurt out.

"I know! I can't do anything!" Rex cries.

"But since I don't have those problems, I can!" Kenwyn announces.

"Say what?" Reed yells as she charges forwards and slides under the EVO, she darts up a large boulder and jumps off, kicking at it's face.

"AWESOME!" I yell, fist pumping.

She darts from wall to wall, dodging the EVO's attacks. She kicks large rocks at it, sending them crashing into it's face. It stumbles to the ground and we cheer, Reed even whistles.

But we stop when the thing gets right back up, growling.

"I think she just pissed it off." I comment as it outstretches it's arms; it's hands turning into claws.

It sticks his claws into _it's self_ and it starts to grow larger into a giant mass of….it.

"It's gonna blow!" Rex yells and we all run away, Kenwyn right behind us.

In the corner of my eye I see to my shock Skwydd wraps ink tendrils all around the EVO. We all fall to the ground when it explodes, knocked by the shock wave, but unharmed. Skwydd's tendrils had taken the worst of it.

"Nice timing." Rex high fives Skwydd as he get's up. "Guess we should thank him for making you able to do that."

"Uh, how about no?" I cross my arms and glare at the unconscious EVO as Kenwyn inspects it.

"Yah, too bad I can already feel it fading away." Skwydd says as he glowing eyes start to dim and the ink starts to turn to black-ish fog.

" _You_ owe me new pants!" Reed growls, pointing at Skwydd.

"Huh?"

A large crowd walks towards us, at the front is Atude leading Mouse. When he spots Skwydd he rushes forwards. "Oh thank you, thank you!" He hugs him and even tries to kiss him on the cheek.

"Alright, woah, woah! Easy on the man kisses!" Skwydd protests trying to get out of his hug of steel.

"Ugh!" Groans Bobo, waking up, the other EVO was starting to wake up too, back to normal…well not exactly normal since he was still an EVO but…

"What happened?" Bobo mutters, rubbing his head.

"Well let's see." Rex glances around. "An EVO and human were working together to prove that EVO's and humans _can't_ work together!"

Kenwyn is already typing into her phone as she walks around observing the damage.

"But then, humans and a EVO working together,stop them." Rex finishes.

"That's sweet." Comments Bobo. "But what I was really asking was, what happened to me?!"

"Oh. She did." He points at Kenwyn who looks up from her phone, and winks.

Bobo facepalms.

We all start to leave, heading back to headquarters. I trail behind feeling a bit exhausted from the whole thing. I look down at my skirt and groan when I notice there's a bunch of dirt stains on it.

"What's wrong?" Rex asks, slowing down to walk beside me.

I sigh. "Nothing, just sleepy I guess, and my new skirt got some stains."

"Oh, too bad, it looked good on you."

I look up at him in surprise. He blinks, realizing what he said, and starts to blush. "I-uh, I meant, um…" He rubs the back of his head nervously.

I laugh. "Thanks."

He nods, and doesn't say anything, just blushes even brighter.

He looked cute when he blushed.

Now it was my turn to be surprised. Woah, where did that thought come from? Wow I really needed some sleep.

 **oOoOo**

"Rex did what?!" White Knight exclaims. We were back at headquarters, I was in my usual jeans and shirt, and Reed and Kenwyn were back in Providence uniforms. We were trying to explain what happened to Knight but he kept interrupting.

"Like I said in my report, he did everything by the book." Kenwyn lies.

Reed snorts but I elbow him. On the way back we had gotten our stories out straight so that no one would get the fall for any destruction that happened.

"I'm very…surprised by that." Knight says suspiciously.

"Me too." Rex agrees.

"Well, that's my report sir." Kenwyn concludes.

"Is it now? Then you are leaving me no choice Agent Jones, but to make sure you all team up again."

We all glance at each other, and I sigh. "I don't totally hate you anymore, so…" I gesture to Reed and shrug.

"I'm delighted." He mutters sarcastically. After our mission he had seemed to cool with the flirting bit, thankfully.

To be totally honest, Reed and I hadn't done all that much. Well Reed had helped take out one of the EVO's while I tried to get the other long neck one, but we had both needed Kenwyn and Rex's help. But, eh. What can you do? In the end everything went okay, so I guess we couldn't have been all that terrible.

"I'm actually cool with that." Rex shrugs.

"Me too." Kenwyn agrees.

"Woah, woah!" Bobo interjects. "Where does that leave me?

"If I have to guess, with a lot less to do." Rex shrugs.

"Oh, in that case, welcome aboard." Reed and I both duck as he tries to throw his arms around us, and instead get's Kenwyn and Rex.

He even kisses her cheek, to her horror. Poor Kenwyn.


	12. Chapter 12

**a/n Hey, sorry about the late update, my computer had a problem so I had to get it fixed so I was without a computer for a couple of days.**

 **oOoOo**

I have deep sympathy for Noah now. Poor guy. I mean, Holiday had given me a bunch of trigonometry homework, and I was finding _that_ hard! But before Noah was taking freaking calculus!

I groan and slam my head against the textbook. I was in a sort of living room area, a small room in one of the hallways. No one else was around, probably all doing more important stuff then stupid trigonometry.

I glare at the textbook. "When will I need to use you? How are you helpful to my future?"

Of course the book doesn't reply. "Stupid book." I mutter.

"Wow. Talking to a book, you've really lost it."

I look up as Rex walks into the room, giving me an odd look. I sigh leaning back in the chair. "I'm not nuts, just frustrated."

"What are you doing?" He asks, coming over.

"Trigonometry." I say in disgust.

"Oh…" He studies the book, then my page for a few seconds before pointing at one of my answers. "That's wrong, the side that is 360 meters is C not B."

I stare down at my paper, then at the textbook, then at Rex. He raises an eyebrow at my shocked look. "What? It's just trigonometry."

"Y-Y-You know how to do this?!" I shriek.

"Uh…yeah?"

I think my jaw nearly hits the ground. Rex rolls his eyes. "How stupid did you think I was?...Actually don't answer that."

"Help me." I beg, hands clasped together.

He laughs. "Sure. So look, at this question you've gotta…"

And that's how I spent the next forty minutes, with Rex actually helping me at trigonometry. Who would have thought he was actually _good_ at math?

"Oh my god…I get it!" I laugh staring at the textbook in delight. "Rex you're a miracle worker!"

He laughs. "Got that right!"

 **WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!**

"Uh…" I look up as the warning bells go off, sending the room awash in red light.

"A EVO must have gotten out of the petting zoo." Rex mutters already heading off towards the door.

I follow him down the hallway and we spot a group of Providence soldiers running by.

"What's going on?" Rex asks.

"A EVO got out." A soldier replies, Rex was right.

This honestly happened a bit more than Providence would like to admit. It was hard keeping track of all the EVO's and what abilities they had and how to contain them, sometimes someone makes a mistake.

"They're going to wish they stayed in the zoo." Rex says evilly.

"You're enjoying this too much…" I mutter.

The agents pass us and Rex and I run down the hall, we reach a corridor and al of a sudden a giant wolf looking EVO crashes through the walls. Rex grins and transforms into his Smack Hands, he then glances at me.

"You should probably take cover, just in case."

He didn't mean just in case he couldn't win against the EVO. Oh no, he mean tin case he accidently smashes _everything_ including me by incident.

"Obviously you haven't heard of the word _restraint_ before." I snark. He just gives me a look and I sigh.

"Fine. Go, hero boy."

He smirks and takes off, charging at the EVO with a yell. I roll my eyes and stroll back to the room, passing a few Providence Agents that run by. "Yep, he's that way, look out for his fists they might hit you by accident." I warn, by now the alarms had gone off, means that Rex must be winning.

When I get back to the room I glance at the textbook, and decide that I deserve a break. I turn to the computer on the desk in the corner, there had been something nagging me that I needed to check out…

I sit down and start typing away, all right…what does retaco mean in English…

…

SHORTY?!

He was dead. _Dead_.

The living corpse himself walks through the doorway at that moment, stretching his arms behind his head. "Got it!"

I whirl around, glaring. I storm towards him and his smile freezes as he takes in my furious look.

"Uh…what?"

"Oh don't _what_ me!" I growl, poking his chest. "I mean really? Really?!"

His arms drop to his side and he looks baffled. "Uh…?"

"SHORTY! Retaco means shorty!" I yell.

"Oh…OH!" He exclaims, finally understanding my anger. He laughs, and my fists clench. "I was wondering how long I could get away with that."

"I am NOT short!"

He raises an eyebrow and to my annoyance raises a hand to his head, then lowers it to my mine. "Uh, yeah you are."

"You. Are. Dead! I'm going to _disembowel_ you!" I threaten.

He backs up hands held in front of him but there was an amused twinkle in his eyes, and he had that annoying half smile of his. "Hey, hey, what were you saying before about restraint?"

I let out an enraged howl and charge at him, laughing he runs out of the doorway, I was right on his heels.

We run through the hallways, him laughing and I screaming death threats. Rex stops though, only because he nearly crashes into Six.

Six raises an eyebrow, looking between us. Rex laughs, scratching the back of his head and takes a few steps away from me as I march towards him. Before I can murder him Six blocks my way with an arm.

"You'll have to kill him later, Rim. Right now we need you, Rex, and Bobo in the Bug Jar."

"The Bug Jar?" We both exclaim, my anger quickly vanishing…for now. I had heard of the Bug Jar, Rex had gone in there for a mission before. He had told me about it, and the weirdo NoFace. It had sounded terrifying.

He nods, hand going back to his side. "The shield is starting to break down and repairs are necessary. You three will be sent in, Rim and Bobo as back up."

"That's a terrible idea." I blurt out.

"We have faith in you're abilities."

Really? Cus I don't. At all. Honestly by now I think the only reason I was still around was because Holiday and Six wanted Rex to have another friend around, besides Noah and Bobo. Though I'm not complaining, I like it here!

So that's how we found ourselves in the Bug Jar, underground in the sewers in a room, working on some sort of machine who-dickey. Well, really Rex was. Because as I think we all realized back during the whole Gatlocke thing, I didn't understand machines. And Bobo…Bobo was just lazy.

"Can you lend me a hand?" Rex grumbles, he had just finished doing some weird narration of our situation. Of how us heroes were up against dangers like no other, against a man with no face (he was referencing to the EVO noface, duh) and were trapped in the bug jar. I don't know, he was weird. Also he was kinda grouchy since he had been forced to wear a Providence Guard uniform for protection instead of his usual outfit, I was also wearing one. Rex was lying under the machine tinkering with it.

Bobo drops a screwdriver into his outstretched hand and it falls to the floor, Rex sits up and glares at him.

"Whoops."

"Guys what's the shield status?" I hear Holiday suddenly say in my ear, yep I had finally gotten communicator!

"Power regulators completely smashed, Doc." Rex reaches out to a switch and presses his hand against it, activating his nanites. "I'll need to control it manual until we can get it started."

He pulls the lever then glances back at Bobo. "Hm, smells kind of ripe in here."

Bobo looks guilty. "That little back door there?" He points down a hallway. "Not the bathroom…"

"EW!" I cry, backing up from him.

"I-" Whatever retort he's about to throw at me get's interrupted when his radar machine buzzes. "Uh oh, more Bug Jar buddies!"

He looks up at us. "I go the last one."

"Fine!" Rex groans. "Hold this." Bobo goes over and holds the lever down.

"And whatever you do, do not let go!" Rex warns.

"Or what?"

"Kaboom!"

"Great, just going to go beat up some crazy EVO, nothing can go wrong." I mumble under my breath as I follow Rex out. I had an actual gun this time at least, a laser thing, like the ones at Providence Camp.

We walk along a sewer underground, ew. "Okay little wormy." Rex mutters, staring at the radar as dots appear on the screen coming closer. "Come to papa."

I give him a strange look. "You're really weird, you know that?"

"Yah, yah" He mutters, pressing himself against the wall to avoid being seen. I do the same and we watch in tense silence as something in the opposite tunnel comes out of the darkness.

"Woah." Rex whispers. "Yet even in this forsaken place our hero runs afoul of his evil nemesis, Van Kleiss."

I would tell him to shut up, but I was too busy internally freaking out as Van Kleiss walks out into the light, stepping into the…ew…sewage.

"…My gun is so not cutting it…" I mutter.

Rex pulls up a part of the suit to cover half his face so he looks like one of those bandits in the wild west. I do too, we have to, it turns the stealth suits on. Which is when they change colours into out backgrounds so we blend in.

"Looks like Kleiss has decided to crash the party." Rex whispers to me and Bobo on his communicator.

"Like him not to call first Bobo jokes."

"And he brought his pack flunkies." I hover over Rex's shoulder trying to peer around, and sure enough I spot four EVO's, Breach, and some chick with red dyed hair…that must be Cerci!

Oh GREAT. Cerci. I had heard a bit about her from Rex. And a whole lot from Noah and Bobo since Rex did not like to talk about her much. She was kind of sort of his evil ex girlfriend apparently. Wow. Great.

"This keeps getting better and better." I mutter angrily.

"Get ready." Rex warns Bobo. "They're headed straight for-." He says as they turn a corner into another tunnel…in the other direction. "Someplace else?"

"Let's follow them." Rex whispers to me and I hesitantly nod. We jump out of the tunnel and run to a wall, glancing around the edge after them.

"Oh no way are you leaving me here with-"

"Sorry got another call." Rex cuts Bobo off, I hear a click and suddenly Holiday's voice in my ear.

"Why aren't you two fixing that shield regulator?"

"Can't." Rex replies. "You may remember him from such schemes as destroying Providence headquarters, and trying to take over the entire earth."

"Van Kleiss? In there?" Holiday gasps.

"Bingo." I nod, even though she can't see it.

"Alright, you guys should investigate." Holiday says. " _After_ you fix the shield."

"Then it might be too late!" Rex argues.

"She's there, isn't she?" Holiday sighs.

"Who? Breach?" Rex asks, playing dumb. "Yah bu-"

I bristle but I don't say anything. I knew who Holiday really meant. I didn't like this topic. Ok, true, I hadn't met the girl, but I mean come on! She knocked Rex out once! And she chose VAN KLEISS over REX! I mean come on!

Holiday sighs, interrupting him. "A quick recon and that's it. I'll try to buy some time on this end. And I want regular check ins!"

"Got it." Red nods and goes back into stealth mode. He gestures for me to follow him and I do, a bit reluctantly though. This was going to be fun…

We follow them and one of their members get's attacked by some slug EVO thing, but Van Kleiss…does something to it, I'm not really sure what he kind of knocks it out with his nanites. Then Cerci and some other wolf looking EVO get into a bit of an argument about EVO's. I'm not really sure, I was too busy grumbling internally. Why was I in such a funk? This wasn't a big deal.

No, wait, it so was.

"With no care for his own safety…" And Rex WOULDN'T STOP WITH THE HERO TALK! "Our brave hero tails his quarry-"

"Along with his totally awesome friend." I add.

He glances at me and rolls his eyes and continues. "Into the lions den!" We run after them and climb up a ladder into the outside, there were standing in front of a concrete building with no windows, we hide behind a piece of broken wall.

"Unknown to the villain he'll be meddling with forces he can't possibly control." Rex babbles.

My hand twitches. I was going to strangle this guy. But before that happens two random EVO's appear, and charge at Kleiss.

Cerci steps up and…wow…I had heard about her power but when her mouth changes and she does that scream thing….she looks really weird…but it works the two EVO's get blown back. Suddenly the ground starts shaking.

"Wha-" I start to whisper but suddenly some red guy with no face shoots outs of the ground.

"NoFace!" Rex whispers.

"Yeah, I kind of got that." I mutter.

"INTRUDERS!" NoFace cries, attacking the EVO's.

"Aaaand things just got even _more_ weird. Fabulous." I mutter as Cerci does her scream thing.

"Shhh, I'm trying to watch!" Rex whispers, peeking out.

I cross my arms. " _I_ should be quiet? And since when did your hearing affect your sight-"

"SHHH!"

Yep. I was going to strangle him. How many times had I wanted to kill him today? Three? Four?

NoFace almost reaches Kleiss despite their best efforts but then Breach shoots out a portal and hits him, he disappears…and then the portal opens up and he reappears.

Ok. I'm lost.

"Who are you?" NoFace asks, bewildered.

"Someone in a position to help you." Kleiss says sneakily.

Everything, and I mean _everything_ about that guy was EVIL! Even his hair! I don't understand how Cerci couldn't see that? How could she be okay with that?! WHAT THE H-

"Rim, stop angrily mumbling I'm trying to hear what they're saying!" Rex shushes me. I roll my eyes, but shut up, we were both moving quitly around, trying to hide in a patch of trees.

"Follow." NoFace snarls and starts to walk into the building.

"Breach, with me." Kleiss orders. "The rest of you, remain here."

"Master, my place is at your side." The purple wolf EVO interjects.

"I want no interruptions, Biowulf." Kleiss says firmly. "Is that clear?"

Oh, so it's name was Biowulf…that's a terrible name.

Kleiss and Breach enter the building.

"Okay folks here's the 411." Rex whispers into his communicator. It was weird hearing him next to me, then also right in my ear. "VK, NoFace, getting cosy. Gonna try to bust it up. That's all I got for now, over and out."

"Oh don't you dare hang up!" Bobo yells.

Rex hangs up. Poor Bobo, he was stuck holding that lever.

We huddle in some bushes and watch them, after a while I get kind of…bored.

"…So…" I start to say, not really knowing where I was going with this. "You and Cerci, huh?"

Startled Rex glances behind at me. "Uh…well…no. Not really."

I nod slowly. "Hmmm…"

"What?" He turns fully this time. "Nothing is going on! She chose her side, I chose mine. Simple as that."

I nod again.

"What?!" He cries, glaring at my disbelieving expression.

I shrug. "Didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it! And wait, why are you even askin-" Suddenly a claw reaches down and grabs Rex by the throat, throwing him to the ground. "Hey! Easy on the stealth suit! Which apparently, isn't so stealthy!"

"Shit!" I jump up and shoot at Biowulf with the gun, but it's suddenly knocked out of my hands by some green shards coming from Skalamander. This stealth suits were doing nothing, they could see the top part of our faces, and could see my gun waving in the air. We did not think this through!

"Hey!" I cry as Biowulf grabs me and slams me to the ground next to Rex. "Gee whiz." I mutter. "That gun sure was helpful! So glad I came along! Also, OW!"

Cerci leaps up from the wall she was sitting on and jump to the ground between Rex and I glare. I glare up at her as I struggle, and she rips the suit part covering our faces, breaking the stealth switch so now we were clearly visable.

"Rex?" She cries looking at him, and then she turns to me. "Who…oh you're the one who spilled coffee on Breach!"

"Cool, I'm famous." I snark.

"They're Providence spies!" Skalamander snarls.

"Well no duh!" I yell.

"Got it in one!" Rex exclaims. "Yep, we heard that VK was looking for a new second in command."

Biowulf pulls us up into the air harshly. "WHAT?"

"Not the smartest thing to say, genius." I growl.

"You shouldn't be talking!" He shoots back; he then looks back at the furious Biowulf. "True story. Got it straight from Intel, not surprised really, NoFace is one bad dude! Guess Biowulf here aint cutting it these days…"

Ohhh, I get it now. He was trying to rile him up…except that since we were being held up in the air by his massive claws this was a terrible idea.

He growls and lifts us higher into the air, looking like he was about to smash us intot he ground. Rex transforms into the Boogie Pack, sending Biowul flying into a wall, losing his grip on me. I fall to the ground. "Oof!"

Skalamander charges at Rex, roaring, but he flies out of reach. Cerci runs at him, about to use her scream thing.

"Nope!" I yell, tackling her.

"What?" She smacks the floor and glares at me. "Get off!"

Her mouth grows longer and I leap off her when I realize what's she about to do. I raise my hands in front of my face. "CRA-"

She's suddenly blown away, literally, as Rex directs the air coming from the Boogie Pack at her. "Seen it before."

"Nice!" I cheer, but then I quickly panic when I see something behind him. "Look out!"

Some wire things shoot out of his wings and slam Skalamander into the ground when he tries to charge at Rex. "Fist he keeps you out of meetings, then the boss chews you out for trying to do your job… he leaps over Biowulf, and smacks him with a wing and he goes sailing into the air.

"Next thing you know you're taking orders from the new guy! And you're just another hench like Skalamander!"

I stay off to the side, wanting to help, but not knowing how. Besides that, Rex looked like he knew what he was doing, I would probably just get in the way honestly.

He turns the wings so the air blasts at the two EVO's sending them crashing back when they try to charge him. He flies into the air and comes soaring back down.

"Here's the part where the hero sweeps the girl off her feet…literally." He yells as he grabs me with one arm around the waist.

"Whoooaaahh!" I yell as he dives down again and grabs Circi with the other arm.

"See ya around Henchi!" Rex yells back to the angry EVO's as he flies higher.

"Down, now!" Circi orders, while she was calm and collected, kind of, I was terrified. My eyes as wide as dinner plates as I have one arm slung around Rex's neck and another clutching his arm, staring at the fast moving ground below us.

"Not until we hear each other out!" Rex argues with Cerci.

"Dontdropmedon'tdropmedon'tdropme" I chant.

"Sure, I'll go first!" Cerci tranforms her mouth and screams, making Rex cry out in pain, his Boogie Pack, breaking, AND HE DROPS ME.

"AAAAAHHH!" I scream as we fall.

"Way to go Cerci!" Rex yells.

Cerci hits the side of a building that was leaning and starts to _slide down it._

"STILL FALLING!" I shriek.

Rex growls and tries to change into the Boogie Pack. "Grab my hand!" He yells and I do, but we weren't safe yet. We smash into a tree growing out the side of a building, and his Boogie Pack breaks because he isn't concentrating. We go smashing through tree heading straight to the hard ground.

 **CRASH!**

We both groan in pain, we had survived, the trees had slows our fall, but OW! I raise my head, wincing at the movement, and realize the reason the ground was softer then it should have been, was because I was lying on Rex. I try to get up, but I'm pinned down by a piece of rubble.

"Uh…" I murmur, trying to push on the rubble. Rex opens his eyes and stares at me in surprise.

I blush and try to avoid his eyes, staring at the piece of concrete instead. "Little help?"

He reaches out his hands and we both push to the left, sliding the thing off us. I quickly leap to my feet, and nearly fall again. We were on a hill off ruble. Rex also get's to his feet, but suddenly we're flown off them when hit by Cerci's scream.

I was really starting to hate that chick. We fly off the hill and land on the dirt road.

"Great, more bruises to add to my ever growing collection." I mutter, trying to pick myself up.

"Cerci, just give me one minute okay!" Rex yells as she walks towards us. Rex raises his arms. "Look, no powers!"

She transforms her face back to normal. "One minute. But if this is about leaving the pack-"

"Please." Rex interrupts. "I'm way past that. They're bigger things going on here then who you hang out with."

"Fifty seconds." She says crossly.

Wow, she was counting? Sheesh.

"We weren't sent here to spy on you. We're here to stop these things from ever getting out."

I nod, and cross my arms.

"Fourty. Why are you telling me this?" She asks, putting her hands on her hips. "You know who I am."

"You've seen the things that live here, whatever deal you think Van Kleiss is making it's going to turn out bad for everyone!" Rex exclaims.

"Thirty seconds."

Wow. Woooooow. I really, really, REALLY didn't like this chick!

"I do know who you are Circe, for once think for yourself! Maybe your perfect leader could actually be wrong! Maybe even a bit crazy! Nuts! Certifiably insane!"

"One nutty fruitloop!" I add.

"Yeah, that too!" Rex agrees.

Circe glares at us, furious. "SHUT UP!" She screams. She does her annoying yell thing and I get thrown back, Rex tenses up and is able to stay on his feet.

"Twenty, talk about blinded, did you ever wonder why Van Kleiss is so interested in you?!" Circe mutters as she starts attacking Rex with kicks and punches. He dodges them and keeps backing up.

I leap to my feet and run towards them but he gestures at me to stop. I guess he got this?

"Oh I don't know, maybe he wants me dead?" Rex guesses as he blocks another kick with his Smack Hands.

"Not anymore, something has changed Rex." Circe announces, pausing in her attack. "Ever since you got your powers back I hear him talking, says you have something that's the key to everything! For whatever reason he needs you alive. I know it Rex, he'd _never_ let you be killed!"

"Never huh?" Rex raises an eyebrow.

"The only reason he wouldn't kill him is so he could _use_ Rex for some crazy power hungry plot! The guy's insane and freaking evil! Hello!" I blurt out, not being able to hold back any more.

She glances behind at me and gives me a death glare. "Times up." She leaps at me and all I can see is her foot.

 **POW!**

Ow. Owwwww. Shit. She has one powerful kick! I lie on the ground groaning and I hear Rex yell. "HEY!"

I hear signs of fighting and suddenly Rex is beside me, trying to sit me up. "You okay?"

"Oh just peachy." I mutter, rubbing my head. "Where's Circe?"

"Knocked her out, she's lying on the ground back there."

I look over his shoulder and blink in surprise. "Uh…back where?"

 **CRACK!**

Circe appears out of nowhere and kicks Rex in the face, I gasp but I'm too slow and next thing I know I black out.


	13. Chapter 13

I wake up, sort of, after who knows how long. I open my eyes and I squint, my vision blurry. I think I was being carried by Skalamander. Ew. I try to look over for Rex but when I try to move my head suddenly throbs with pain.

Against my will I let out a groan.

"So you're awake." I hear Circe say to my right. "No matter, we're here."

Suddenly I'm thrown to the hard ground, where there was water strangely. I let out another groan as my head smacks the concrete. This sucked. I hear another splash and I turn my head and see Rex lying next to me. He had his eyes closed, but then he opens one and looks at me and mouths 'all right?'

I mouth back. 'Peachy.'

'Don't bring attention to yourself'

'Back atcha'

Suddenly Biowulf grabs me around the shoulders and I get lifted up, my head spinning, around us was the Pack and we were in some building. Oh and Van Kleiss was standing a few feet away. Wonderful.

"Now this looks like a party." Rex mutters.

"Rex…" Van Kleiss hisses, getting way to into his personal space. "You never cease to amaze me."

Creep alert!

"DEFILER!" NoFace roars, jumping down with a splash.

Creep alert, again!

"Give it to us!" He snarls, walking towards us.

"Now do you believe I can deliver what I say?" Kleiss turns to face NoFace…ha. "Think of the girl as a bonus."

I raise my head and glare at him.

NoFace nods, pleased. "Good, maybe seeing his friend get hurt will bring him even greater pain."

Uhhhh say what?!

"Don't touch her!" Rex snarls.

"Yah! What he said!" I yell.

"Will you agree to my leadership?" Kleiss asks, ignoring us.

"We agreed to it, give it us!" NoFace demands. "Now! Now! NOW!"

CREEEEPY ALLLLLERRRTTT

"Van Kleiss!" Circe gasps. "I didn't bring them here so you cou-he'll kill them!"

"Well what did you think?" I grumble. "We were all going to sit down and drink tea?!"

Seriously, there goes the whole 'Kleiss will never want to kill Rex thing.'

"Shhh." Rex whispers, kicking my foot.

"What's the point?"I hiss back. I had already brought attention to myself!

"Never forget how I found you Circe." Kleiss glances back at her. "What you were, before." He turns back to NoFace. "He's yours."

Before? So she had a rough past? Tough. So did I. Don't see me joining evil creeps with bad hair…well there is White Knight…

"You." NoFace points at Biowulf. "Bring them, to the best of you all."

Or at least, that's what I think he said. I don't know he was talking weirdly and it was garbles, but I think it was place.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Biowulf hisses, throwing us down in the middle of another weird room. Well, more like a giant cavern. Up above the floor was broken and through the giant hole I could see different EVO's watching, like it was some sort of show.

I struggle to my feet, heading throbbing even more. I was getting real tired of being thrown around.

"You were supposed to finish me off." Rex taunts. "Now you just get to watch with the other hench bags!"

Biowulf just growls and walks away.

"Surrounded by the jeering throng the hero faces certain doom!"

"Oh great, you're doing that again?" I mutter, face palming.

"Even his companion, shorty, believes they are doomed."

"If they don't kill you, I will!" I threaten, pointing at him and taking a step forwards.

"What?" He gives me a lopsided grin. "There's no point calling you retaco now that you know what it means."

"Or you could just _not_ call me, shorty! What about that?"

"Not an option."

Eighth time I've wanted to kill him today? Ninth?

"Now you feel my pain!" I hear NoFace hiss and we both turn to see him emerge from the gloom.

"First, a few ground rules." Rex begins. "Nothing below the belt, and I have a date on Friday, so easy on the face."

I can't help but laugh at that. "Getting an examination by Holiday is not a 'date' Rex."

He doesn't get a chance to retort before NoFace leaps at us, I dive out of the way on to the ground and Rex jumps up, blocking his attack with his Smack Hands. I think he purposely backs up just to get NoFace father away from me.

"Dates aren't exactly a problem in your case." Rex snarks as he continues to jump back out of reach of NoFace. "Having no face and all."

He transforms into the Slam Cannon, and shoots at NoFace creating an explosion of dirt and water, I couldn't see a thing.

"Nice!" I cheer.

Rex turns to me and smiles, but suddenly to my horror NoFace shoots out of the explosion and slices through Rex's Slam Cannon, breaking it and sending him into a pillar where he topples to the ground.

"REX!" I scream and rush towards him, he was groaning trying to get to his feet and I turn towards the advancing NoFace. "Back off ugly!" I growl, getting into a fighting position. NoFace runs at me and swats me aside like I'm a bug. I smack to the ground hard, my ears ringing. I open my eyes and I see him reaching towards Rex.

"LIKE HELL!" I howl, jumping to my feet despite my growing dizziness, and rush at NoFace.

To my surprise though Rex suddenly leaps to his feet and jumps over me and slices at NoFace with the big swords battle saw. NoFace leaps into the air and strikes down with deadly force, smashing Rex to the ground, his face in the water. He yanks the sword off Rex, and stabs it into the ground next to his head. Then he looks at me and leaps towards me, grabbing me by the shoulder and lifting me up.

"Die!" It growls, whipping me towards a pillar.

I smack into it, my head making an awful crack noise. I let out a painful gasp and sink to the ground.

"RIM!"

I hear the sounds of crashing, and I crane my neck up to see what's going on. My vision was blurry but I could make out Rex getting thrown around like a rag doll.

"No…"I groan, slowly getting up to my knees, using the pillar as support. My ears were ringing but I think I can Circe yelling, saying that they need us alive. Van Kleiss says something about if she tried to help us she was done. I don't hear any retort from her, when I look up I make out her figure walking away.

When I look back at Rex NoFace lifts him up and slams him into the ground.

My hands ball into fists and I start to walk towards him, wobbling. I was so dizzy…

"Don't…" I mutter, sloshing towards NoFace who turns to face me. "Touch…him!" I hiss, standing between Rex and him.

"You can't stop me!" It hisses.

"I can try!" I croak. It was taking all my willpower not to fall to my knees.

Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder pull me roughly back and I fall to the ground hard. "Agh!"

My vision blurs again and I can make out Rex's worries face as he lies next to me, and walking past us towards NoFace was Van Kleiss. "I'll have this trash removed." He exclaims. "And now that you've had your fun its time to finalize our-"

"We will have our FULL revenger!" NoFace roars pushing past NoFace to stand over us. He lifts up his fist and I reach a hand out towards him. "No…"

But before he can bring it down on Rex's head Van Kleiss stretches his gold armor hand and catches his fists. "It seems we've reached something of an in pass."

"We take orders from NOONE!" NoFace roars, pulling on Kleiss's arms and he goes soaring towards him, and goes crashing into the floor.

The two start to tussle, NoFace trying to slam Kleiss into the floor. I put a hand on the ground and try to lift myself to my knees, I felt like I might vomit.

"I'm not driving a wedge between you two, am I?" I hear Rex murmer and I glance down at him. He had his eyes closed but he was smiling.

"Well played." Kleiss grunts as he fights of NoFace.

"Good news for me, for you? Not so much." Rex opens his eyes and gives me grin.

I grin back, my vision finally starting to return to normal. "How you feeling?"I ask.

"Oh you know." He shrugs. "Peachy." I laugh, but raise a hand to my head as another wave of dizziness passes through me. It didn't help that Kleiss was throwing giant blocks of cement, making very LOUD noises.

"Hey, don't push it." Rex mutter, putting a hand on my shoulder as he starts to sit up.

"Pity we couldn't have worked something out." I look over at Kleiss. Skalamander, Biowulf, and Breach jump down beside him. "Breach, if you would."

That plan doesn't work though, when suddenly the block of wall they were on get's flipped, sending Breach crashing into a wall and she falls to the floor. NoFace and a bunch of his EVo cronies starting fighting against Van Kleiss and his cronies.

Using the chaos to his advantage Rex suddenly lifts me up, one hand under my knees, another around my waist. "You'll be okay, I'm getting us out of here!"

I murmur something un-intelligible.

"What was that?" He asks, leaning down to hear me better as he flies out of there.

"Just…don't drop me…" I whisper.

He smiles. "I won't, trust me."

A small smile crosses my face as everything starts to go dark. "I already do, idiot."

The next while is a bit of a blur, me fading in and out of consciousness. Sometimes we were flying, other times we were walking, and I knew we were in the sewers by the smell. I turn my face into the side of Rex's jacket to block everything out, I listen to his heart beat and slowly drift back into the darkness.

Some times later I hear Bobo's voice, he sounded angry. "I'm gonna handcuff you to-is she alright?!"

"She hit her head." Rex mutters, placing me gently on the ground, leaning me against the wall. "Oh? You're not still holding that are you?"

Silence.

"…Because it's a good thing! You know, with the whole…kaboom!"

Dazed I listen to their conversation, I wonder if I should tell them I was starting to wake up, but I couldn't move my limbs, I was so sleepy. It seemed like too much effort to say anything so I just lie there.

After I hear Rex talking to Holiday, something about a cold reboot, but that would be bad? Rex interrupts her, saying that I was hurt. After explaining I had fainted she starts telling him to check my pulse, I know all this because he kept repeating the advice to himself to make sure he wouldn't forget. She also adds to make sure I DO NOT fall asleep in case I fall into a coma.

"Don't fall asleep because coma. Got it! …Wait…COMA?!" I hear Rex shriek and suddenly two hands are on my shoulders, shaking me.

"Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup-"

"I'm awake!" I groan, raising a hand and pushing on his chest, and open my eyes.

He sighs in relief, not letting go. "You can't sleep!" He orders. "Doc said you might go into a coma or something, we need to get you to headquarters and get you checked out!"

"S'im fne…" I slur, my eyelids drooping. "You also smash'd through stuff all the t'me…" My eyes must not have been working properly, Rex was back in his regular clothes and unless he knew magic or something I had no idea how he had managed to change.

"I'm _me_." He exclaims. "I have nanites and stuff that help with the impacts! _You_ do not! DO. NOT. SLEEP!" He punctures each word with a shake, though softer this time.

"Fiiiiine!" I groan, trying to get up. My legs buckle underneath me and Rex catches me, one hand on my waist another on my shoulder.

"Woah, careful!"

I yawn, feeling sort of tingly "Can you carry me again? That was nice…"

He gives me an odd look. "Wow. You are _really_ out of it!"

Suddenly the machine starts making a weird hissing noise and starts beeping as the lights on it flash red.

"Doc, you remember back in the briefing all that stuff you were saying about worse case scenarios?" He asks, talking to Holiday again. "Yah, we have a winner."

"The shield is breaking apart!" Bobo exclaims, staring at the machine in horror.

"We have to-but-" Rex glances at the machine then back to me. "Ugh!" He groans in frustration.

"We have to go fix it!" Bobo yells!

"I know, but I can't leave her here!" Rex exclaims!

"I'll be okay." I murmur.

He looks back down at me worried, and carefully places me back on the ground against the wall again. "We have to go but…what if she falls asleep…?" He murmurs.

"I wont!" I groan.

"Promise me." He suddenl says, and I look up trying to focus on his face.

"You have to promise Rim, Bobo and I can handle this but you're going to have to be on your own for just a little bit okay? You have to be able to stay here and _be okay_!" He exclaims, a frown on his face as he stares at me, his eyes serious.

I nod. "I know." My head still hurt, but I was finally starting to gain back some control of my limbs. "I can do it, I'll be fine."

Rex just stares at me for a few more seconds, still frowning.

"We gotta go!" Bobo interjects.

Rex sighs, closing his eyes for a second before looking back at me. "Give me your hand."

"Huh?" Confused I reach out my hand and he takes it in his, and using his other hand he puts something in my palm.

I bring it to my face for closer inspection, and recognize the nanite key chain I had gotten for him on his birthday, he always wore it on his belt.

"Keep this safe for me, okay? Just concentrate on that, and…and be okay." Rex pleads.

I nod again. "You've said that ten times. Go, hero boy."

He smirks and takes of after Bobo and I'm left alone.

 **oOoOo**

 **Aw, Rim and Rex are starting to get very close :)**

 **Thanks for all the support, and shout out to GuardianOfTheTARDIS15 who dropped a nice and long review!**

 **Some sad news, some bad personal stuff has been happening...found out my dad's been cheating so...don't worry I'm not ending the story but obviously because of the situation I don't have as much time to write at the moment so updates will be a bit slower for now.**

 **So yeah...**


	14. Chapter 14

The minutes tick buy and I stare at the key chain, and smile. Geez, he still had this. That made me…really happy. But he didn't have to give it to me, there's no way I could sleep with the racket I kept hearing. Just random crashing noises of fighting, and some really strange loud yelling sound. Though it was muffled, I recognized it. Great, what was she doing? Were they fighting? I stand up and walk slowly towards the door, wondering if I should go out there. I was starting to feeling better, if a little dizzy.

Good thing is I don't have to worry for long, the door opens and I tense in case it's Kleiss or something. When I see who it is I relax.

"Rex! Are you okay? What happened? I heard weird noises!" I exclaim.

"We were fighting off some EVO's and we met up with the Biowulf and Circe" He explains.

I nod. "Thought so, explains the screaming noise. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, we're having…a temporary truce of sorts so we can hopefully all get out of here alive, though to do that I need to fix the shield." He gestures to the shield generator at the back of the room. "But I should be asking you that, you feeling good?"

I shrug. "Better then before, I'm starting to feel normal again."

"You? Normal?" He jokes.

I roll my eyes. "Coming from _you_? Priceless. But we can't just chat, we gotta fix this stupid thing I don't wan to be stuck here forever!"

"Chill, I got this." He assures, and talks to Holiday over the communicators, she makes sure I'm all right and then she starts to speak to Rex.

"Rex you'll need to follow this sequence _exactly_." She warns as he walks over to the machine.

"Op, no time for that!" Rex exclaims, placing his hand on the machine as it starts to glow blue.

"Do you know what you're doing?" I hiss, taking a step back in case it explodes. Not like that would exactly help though…

"No idea." Rex replies.

Great. Fabulous. We're all gonna die.

"Shield activation in sixty seconds" A robotic voice suddenly informs us, coming from who knows where.

"And you doubted me." Rex snarks.

As it starts to count down Rex suddenly bolts and grabs my hand dragging me through the door.

"Come on! I left them out there with a bunch of EVO's they'll need our help, can you run?" He asks as he drags me through the sewer tunnels.

"Yeah!" I nod, as I try not to slip in slime. I quickly slip Rex's keychain into my pocket for safekeeping.

We reach a ladder and instead of letting me climb up Rex grabs me around the waist and shoots upwards, transforming into the Rex Ride and bursting out of the pot hole.

I yelp. "Give me a warning next time!"

"Sorry, no time!" Rex lands in front of the others, who looked very surprised. "We are out of here!"

Bobo jumps on to the back with an unconscious Circe, I'm on the side my legs hanging off the edge but Rex had a firm arm around my waist and both hands clenched on to the handle bars. If we weren't surrounded by hostile EVO's I probably would be blushing.

"You coming or what?" Rex yells at Biowulf who is standing to the side.

"I was never here." It growls, and takes off.

"Suicidal crazy-" My insult is cut off when Rex suddenly shoots off as the countdown continues he robotic voice echoing across the town.

"Fourteen…Thirteen…"

"Gogogogogo!" I scream, clutching on to his arm so I don't go rocketing off by accident.

The front part widens a bit, to act as a battering ramp as Rex smashes through EVO's. I squeeze me eyes shut and hold on tight.

"We'regonnadiewe'regonnadie'weregonnadie-"

"Four…three…"

I open one of my eyes only to stare in horror as the yellow honeycombed pattern shield starts to stretch across the sky, heading from the top towards the edges of the dome.

"Two…"

We were going to be sliced in half by the shield! Cue screaming!

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"One."

WE MADE IT! Rex zooms past the shield, the back of the Rex Ride getting sliced off but he barely notices.

Bobo hops down and lays Circe on the ground, while I gasp for breath. This had been a crazy day.

"You've got quite a set of lungs on you." Rex smirks.

I glare at him and twist around a little."Yeah well, screaming for your life we'll do that to you."

"But I did get us out of their alive."

"….Yeah you did. Thanks." We both smile, but I pause when I realize something. "Uh…you can let go now."

He blinks in surprise and looks down at his arm still around my waist. He blushes and quickly let's go.

Suddenly we hear a groan and turn to see Cerci getting up. "Van Kleiss…" She gasps.

Seriously. _That's_ the first thing she thinks of?

"Ah, Breach will get him out." Rex shrugs standing up and transforming back to normal. "Eventually." He helps her up, but doesn't let go of her hands.

Strangely he glances at me and a weird look passes over his face and he lets go of her hands like he'd been scalded.

Okay?

"But right now he's in there, you're out here. You'll never have a better time to consider, you know, you're options." Rex continues.

I cross my arms, annoyed. I swear if I ended up working with her I was gonna strangle her! I don't care whatever her past is about; she knocked me and Rex out! That hurt! A LOT!

A humming noise interrupts her answer as a Providence motorcycle comes into view, the white top pulled over so we can't see the driver. Rex and Cerci quickly let go of each other.

The hood lifts and Bobo get's out. What? When did he even get that?

"What's it about stealing from our won people that's so dang satisfying?" Bobo asks as he throws the keys to Cerci who catches them.

She fiddles with something on the motorcycle. "You forgot to remove the tracker." She opens her fists revealing a tiny white circle with a red flashing dot.

She passes it to Bobo who grumbles. "Eh, funny that…"

"I'm not going to Providence." She announces.

I can't help but let out a sigh of relief, but then stiffen when everyone turns to look at me. "Um…sorry…carry on."

Smooth. Rim. Smooooth.

Cerci glares at me but Rex brings back her attention. "Doesn't matter where you go, all that matters is that _you_ want to go there. That said…"

He turns around and takes a step back, turning once again into the Rex Ride. "I hear Hong Kong is nice this time of year."

Smart, she could stay with his friends there. They could deal with her then. As long as she's far away from me… Bobo jumps on to the back and I sit on the side again, turning so I have an arm around his wasit so I don't slide off. And we zoom off as Rex slides his goggles on.

"And so the tired warrior journeys homeward, crisis averted, world saved, villains vanquished." He exclaims.

I groan "Not this again."

"Pfff, whatever. And what's with you and Cerci?" He asks, glancing back at me.

I look out at the scenery, watching as the rocks go bye. "Nothing, I mean…she did knock me in the head, like, a bunch of times. Excuse me if we aren't the best of friends."

"Sure that's the reason?" Rex asks smugly.

I glare at him. "What are you getting at?"

"Jeaaaalouuuuseee." Bobo sings.

My face goes red. "Oh shut up! Of her? Her hair looks like she dyed it in blood! Or ketchup!"

Rex just smirks. "Awww, shorty's jealous!"

I would have punched him, but I rather not end up in a car crash. Rex crash? Whatever. "I am not!" I yell my voice going high pitched. "Shut up, tyrannosaurus!"

His jaw drops. "Tyrannosaurus?!"

"Yeah." I nod. "Cus your name is Rex, so tyrannosaurus rex! I'll call you that if you don't stop calling me shorty!"

He just grins. "That's an awesome nickname! Yeah, call me that!"

I frown, that wasn't the reaction I was going for. "Well now it's no fun…"

"WATCH THE ROAD!" Bobo suddenly yells, and Rex swerves as we nearly hit a large boulder.

"How about you try to get us home in one piece okay? It would suck to have gone through all that and die on the way back!" I mutter.

Rex laughs. "I got this!"

"Of course you do…"

 **oOoOo**

I remember the first time Rex had told me about the 'evil bunny'. I had thought he was going insane, but when I talked to Noah turns out Rex really had fought some evil bunny EVO that had stalked the two when they went on double dates to the prom so Noah would have a wingman.

I'm not saying that it annoyed me that Rex went on a date with another girl, it happened a long time ago and why should it matter to me who he dates? …Though I couldn't help but wish I had been able to see him in a tux…

ANYWAYS, that wasn't the point. The point was I had been rudely woken up from my nap by Rex's panicked cries as he was attacked by a giant bunny. That's how me, , and Six ended up running around the EVO zoo trying to capture baby EVO bunnies. Also somewhere in the chaos was something about a Bobo robot, I don't know after all that i had been so tired I nearly fell asleep trying to get back to my room.

Just another crazy day at Providence.

 **oOoOo**

"YES!" Rex cheers as the screen on the video game flashes High Score. "Numero Uno baby!"

"Shhhh!" I hush him, looking around embarrassedly at all the people in the fast food restaurant turning to stare.

"Relax! There's no EVO's to fight, no Six looking over my shoulder, and no way this day could possibly get any better." Rex exclaims as we grab a couple of burgers.

There was a blond girl nearby who smiles at Rex, who looks back at her with glee. I sigh, thinking he's going to head over and talk with her, but a little surprisingly he just turns back to me and smiles.

I grin back.

We head out the door of the snack shack, it was dark out. "Oh man Bobo would be so jealous if he knew we sneaked out of this." Rex mutters as we chomp on the burgers. "Good thing my nannies can't talk."

I don't reply, to busy stuffing burger into my mouth. Tacho Tuesday was nice and all but man did I miss fast food!

Rex suddenly stops walking and I bump into him. "Hmf?" I ask, mouth stuffed.

He was staring intently at an alleyway then turns back to me. "If my nannies could talk they would be telling me that's not good."

"Whafts not goof?"

He drops his burger and takes off, I gulp in surprise. "Wha-hey!" I charge after him, cramming the last of the burger into my mouth.

Rex starts calling out and we see a weird shadow suddenly brush by.

"Get back here!" Rex yells, chasing after it.

"Haven't you ever seen a horror movie?! Why are we go _towards_ the creepy thing?" I holler.

The figure leaps up a fire escape to the roof, Rex turns around and spots somebody on a roof. "Brought a friend, huh?"

Four figures materialize behind us, trapping us in.

"Make that friends…big ones. I don't know who you EVO's think you are but you just surrounded the wrong providence agent!" Rex exclaims.

The figurers step into the moonlight, they were human but they looked odd. One was a women with pink hair, another was a old guy, another was just really tall and broad, and this other guy had what looked like bandages wrapped around him?

"Uh…you aren't EVO's." Rex mutters dumbly.

"Oh I hate the clever ones." The women remarks sarcastically before they charge at us.

"What the-?!" I shout as I leap over one of the men's attacks.

Rex sidesteps the bandage man who shoots out the bandages at him, misses, and crashes into the wall. "Ouch."

"Woah, you guys don't fight like humans!" Rex transforms into Smack Hands. "But neither do I!"

He crashes them on to the bigger guy who struggles to push him back. "IV! Let em rip!" He yells.

I see the bandaged guy about to do something and I run towards him trying too…I don't know, something, when the old guy blocks my way. "Nuh uh!"

"Take him out, Trey." The bandages guy says as he shoots the bandages around Rex's smack hands.

The large man tries to use them like a slingshot but Rex knees him in the face with the Punk Busters. Meanwhile I was screaming and running around dodging attacks from the old guy and women.

"Who the hell are you people?!"

"You're worst nightmare." The women smiles and launches herself at me. I flinch but realize she isn't going for me, instead at the last second she turns and smacks Rex in the face with her guitar. Ow.

"Who are you?!" Rex repeats my question, lying on the ground.

"Just tell the blocks at the hospital that five sent you." She smirks and raises her guitar.

I try to run towards them but by then the bandaged guy had wrapped some around my arms and legs to restrain me. "Let go you creepy mummy!" I snarl.

"Rude." He replies looking miffed.

Rex tries to run but the old guy blocks his way, pointing his walking stick at him. He says something in spanish in which Rex replies also in spanish, surprised.

Damn it. I wish I knew spanish,

The old guy whips off the top of his cane revealing that it was actually a hidden sword.

Soon Rex and the man are having a sword fight and the big guy and women try to join in but Rex kept avoiding their attacks, he was good.

The mummy guy uses his free hand to wrap bandages around Rex.

"No!" I cry out as Rex is completely covered, but I hear him angrily roar as he slashes at the cocoon and it explodes making the bandaged man reel back.

I take that chance to get loose and run over to Rex. "Look out!" I cry but too late the old man smacks Rex down on to the ground, he groans in pain.

"Not half bad really." The women remarks.

I crouch down besides Rex protectively, one hand spread out over him as I glare at them as the old man points his cane at me.

"I've seen better moves on a chessboard." The mummy guy scoffs.

"Oh shut it you old carcass!" I retort.

He jerks back in surprise as the women snickers.

"Well I thought he was pretty good ya'll." The big guy comments.

"Si… but is he good enough?" The old man wonders.

"Yes, and that's why we're taking him us." Six of all people comes out of the shadows behind the others.

"SIX?!" Rex and I exclaim, but before we can say anything else, a curse word perhaps… the old guy sticks his cane in our faces again but this time it let's out some sort of gas and I suddenly feel lightheaded.

I choke and collapse on the ground as my head spins, I can hear Rex trying to speak. "Six what are you…" We both go unconscious.


	15. Chapter 15

"There's no excuse for that haircut!" I hear a voice say, finishing his story and laughing.

"You told the same story last time!" The women complains.

"And it wasn't very funny then either." Remarks the bandaged man.

I think i was on the floor, at least that's what it felt like, also when I squinted I could make out the other people sitting above and besides me in seats, across from me was Rex who was also awake.

"Well forgive me for trying to pass the time." The old guy says, sounding annoyed. "We can ride in silence if you prefer."

I give Rex a look, trying to telepathically tell him to keep his trap shut. He just looks angry and confused.

"Definitely fine by me." The big guy replies. "I like the sound the engine make…" He then proceeds to make weird noises with his mouth, trying to mimic the engine.

Rex and I share a look. We were surrounded by crazy people.

They continue to talk, something about being bitter about a Malasian job. I was too busy trying to mime to Rex to be quiet to notice.

"The past is past, we must focus on the task before us." Six says.

Rex ignores my frantic hand motions and stands up groggily. "Which is what exactly."

I sigh and stand up too. "You can just never be quiet can you?"

He scoffs. "You're one to talk." And turns to Six. "Please tell me this is some wacked out providence mission."

Six doesn't say a word.

Rex walks towards him and I nervously hang back, glancing around us. We were in what I think was a plane…oh geez…

"So let me get this straight." Rex starts. "You've gone AWOL with a bunch of weirdos?"

"Hey!" They protest.

"Who you calling weird, big hands?" The bandaged guy complains.

"Shut it mummy boy." I shoot back, crossing my arms.

He glares at me and starts to stand up. "Thats it-"

"Oh sit down!" The women sighs, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him into the chair as I slowly back away.

"Who attacked you're partner and friend and are now kidnapping them in a stolen jet?" Rex finishes.

"I'd say that sums it up." Six says evenly. "Though Rim wasn't really supposed to be a part of this, we didn't have time to bring you back to Providence though, time is of the essence here."

Great. So the only reason I was along for these joy ride was because I had been hanging out with Rex? Lovely.

"Why? What's going on?" Rex asks. "And who are these people?"

"Have you ever wondered why they call me Six?"

"I just thought you're mother sucked with names." I shrug.

"Cus that's how many seconds you have to answer my question." Rex says, taking a step forwards.

"It's because I'm the Six most dangerous man on the planet, meet two through five."

"…Didn't see that coming…" I murmur, eyebrows raised as I look at the people around me.

"Trey, Five, Dos, and IV."

"It's like a roman four." The mummy guy, who I know now is IV, explains.

"I'm not stupid." Rex replies. "And it still doesn't explain why you let them attack us and knock us out."

"The gas was a bit much." Six concedes, glancing at Dos.

"Eh, force of habit."

I give him an odd look and take a step close to Rex, just in case he needed to go all smack hands on these crazies.

"I breathe that stuff for breakfast." IV says before starting to cough violently.

"I can believe it…" i mutter.

"As for the ruff and tumble." Five interjects. "How else were we supposed to see your bag of tricks?"

"Well there is this wonderful thing called asking politely, you might want to try it next time." I blurt out.

She shoots me a look and I give her a sheepish smile while slowly inching behind Rex.

"And I need to learn to keep my mouth shut?" Rex remarks.

"We can't have no ameteur where we're going, no!" Trey exclaims.

"And that is…?" I ask.

Six flicks a switch on a screen and it lights up, showing us a view of a large volcano on a island. "There."

 **oOoOo**

After a very awkward plane ride where I pissed off the IV guy so much he nearly strangled me we finally land on to the island. I had mulled the thought of staying behind but had then decided that if shit was about to happen and Rex was going to be in the middle of it, as always, I would like to be hanging around to help just in case. As we walk up the volcano Six answers Rex's question about Number One, saying he had gone EVO and that's why they needed Rex, to cure him. As we got nearer we entered a tunnel inside a volcano which got really steep. The women tripped and called up to Dos who was farther ahead.

"Lend us a hand Dos!"

"Like you lent me a hand in Bienosyrus?" He remarks cold before walking away.

Rex and I share a confused look.

"I take it you guys aren't one big happy family." Rex guesses.

"We call care about the same thing." Six replies.

IV suddenly swings past us, pulling himself up by shooting out his bandages around rocks. "Oh you care do you? Is that why you haven't seen him in months?"

"My work is important." Six replies evenly as we walk past.

"Mine is too!" Trey argues.

"Fighting a planet wide plague ranks just a bit higher than breaking arms and legs for-"

"You tell our secrets we'll tell yours." IV growls.

Rex and I stand in the middle awkwardly.

"Umm…" I start to say but Rex quickly clamps a hand over my mouth.

I glare at him as the others start to walk again. I tug on his hand and he lets go.

"I wasn't going to say anything sarcastic…" I grumble walking in front of him.

"Couldn't be sure." Rex shrugs.

We catch up to the others who are talking about Number One's situation which didn't seem good, looked like he was fighting a losing battle.

"Good thing I'm here." Rex remarks. "If nanites are the disease then I'm the-"

He suddenly gasps and I whirl round only to see Six fly past me and grab on to Rex's arm, dragging him back before the unsteady rock he was standing on falls down over the edge of a large hole.

Rex stands up a little shaky but smiles. "Cure." He finishes.

"This is a joke, Six." IV says and i turn around jus tot see the others above us watching, not looking happy. "The bad kind that's not funny."

"Like a knock knock joke?" Trey guesses.

"Shut it!" Five snaps.

"Who dat?"

"IV is right, this is a fools errand." Dos jumps down to us. "This boy cannot possibly save a man like-"

"This boy has faced things that would make you people run and hide." Six cuts him off.

I glance at Rex who looks a little surprised by Six, before smiling and running up ahead, me on his heels not wanting to be left alone with the two scary men.

It was getting hotter and when we enter a large opening I understand why. There was a concrete structure being suspended over a pool of lava by chains spanning across to the walls of the volcano.

"Nice house." Rex comments.

"We built it when One learned he was Sick, he wanted to feel safe." Six explains as he starts to walk across the rope bridge towards it.

"If he doesn't enter a code every forty one minutes the house drops, including anyone in it." Five adds.

I grimace. "Harsh…" I mutter as I look nervously down at the pool of lava.

"So the fact that the house is still here…" Rex says.

"Means there's still hope." Six finishes.

The bridge was pretty rickety and I did not feel safe, especially with Trey behind me, could the bridge hold all our weight?

We stop in front of the house/

"So do we knock or…?" Rex starts to ask when the doors suddenly open and a red beast jumps out, chains attached to the walls and the collar around it's neck is the only thing stopping it from eating Rex's head off.

"AH!" I yell, leaping back.

"Everybody back!" Rex yells, transforming into Smack Hands but Six jumps in front of him,

Rex reluctantly transforms back as Six tries to talk to One.

"One, it's me."

The thing growls and tries to bite him but Six doesn't even flinch.

"We're here, all of us. And we brought help."

It snarls before walking back into the building,

"It's even worse than before." IV mutters. "He's too far gone we're just wasting our time!"

"Than leave." Six orders as he walks into the cement block,

The inside is dark and smells of wet fur and despair. Scratched on to the walls was writing 'I'm a man'. Basically it was terrifying. Six explains to us that Number One had been fighting this for FIVE years which i thought was incredibly impressive. When Rex questioned this saying most people went crazy in five minutes Six just said that One wasn't most people.

Creepy.

Six introduces Rex to One and the rest of us stand in the background. I fiddle with my hair nervously. I hope this works. Rex walks towards One, but glances behind him at me. I give him a nervous nod and he get's a determined look in his eyes. But when he reaches out to place a hand on One he suddenly starts growling and rises up on his back legs.

"What have you done?!"Cries Dos.

Rex looks startled. "I didn't even-"

One smacks him, sending him flying.

"No!" I run towards Rex but One charges at us, I dive to the ground and he goes roaring past, pulling the chains out of the wall.

Trey tries to stop him by grabbing a chain but it breaks and One runs out of the open doorway, speeding off down the bridge.

"He is gone." Dos announces grimly as I reach out a hand and help pull Rex up.

Suddenly lights start flashing near the keypad against the wall.

"Unless one of you chumps knows the code this place is going into the soup." IV yells.

"RUN!" Screams Trey and we all race towards the bridge.

"Shit shit shit!" I mutter as the bridge starts to break, Six grabs my arm and leaps towards the platform on the rock wall and we land safely. But from the scream I hear behind me Five wasn't having the same luck.

We watch as Rex swoops down using the Boogie Pack, catches her before she get's barbecued, and flies back up.

IV just looks angry. "Told ya the kid was a bad idea."

"I didn't even touch him!" Rex argues.

"And he did just save Five's life." I add.

"I can do this!" Rex exclaims. "We just have to catch up with him."

They don't look convinced.

"Come on it's a island, how far can he go?"

"Rex is right."Six agrees. "We have to go after him, we have to try."

"That is not the only option." Dos interjects.

Oh boy.

"No!" Six argues. "He can still be saved, he's heading East."

I run after Six and Rex through the tunnels. Rex get's ahead by using the Punk Busters, but before he can attack One Six steps in.

"I don't want him hurt!"

"That's entirely up to him." Rex replies as he transforms into the Smack Hands.

Trey and IV try to hold him using chains and bandages while I do the rational thing and hide behind a large rock.

"Why am I here?" I mutter, crouching low. I was so going to die.

Rex tries again, reaching his hands out to One. "Okay this might…sting a little."

That familiar weird whirring noise starts up and light starts to glow from Rex's hands. Something was definitely happening, One stops growing and collapses to his knees.

"Alright!" I cheer as Five gasps.

"It's working!"

"Oooh, that's what I was going to say." Adds Trey.

Rex suddenly starts to panic. "Wha…no!"

One roars, swatting him away.

"What the?" I start to say but IV cuts me off.

"I knew this wouldn't work!"

Six tries to convince Rex to try again but Rex just shakes his head sadly. "He's incurable. I'm sorry."

"Then we'll do what we should have done in the first place ." Dos raises his cane up threateningly. "Our way."

Dos tries to shoot One but Six pushes him. "Stop!" One get's hit and sent crashing into a wall.

Six and Dos wrestle for the cane but Trey throws him off towards Rex. I get out from my hiding place and run over to Six and Rex who strand facing the others.

"Your plan did not work, this is the only option!" Dos says.

"Killing our teacher was never an option." Six replies. "Even if Rex can't cure him we can still help!"

"We've heard about your petting zoo." IV says in disgust. "He's not an animal!"

"One would sooner die than live in a cage." Five agrees.

"And no cage could hold him." Trey adds.

"Let me try again." Rex pleads. "Please there's got to be something I can do."

I gnaw on my lip nervously. This wasn't going well. "You can't just…give us some more time!"

"No! One is gone." Dos exclaims. "That thing is not him anymore. Just an abomination that must be destroyed."

Six looks angry. "That man gave me a home when I had nothing, he trained me, he took care of me. And now I'm going to take care of him."

"Sorry love, but I think you're out voted." Five interjects.

"I voted twice." Trey adds.

"This was never a democracy." Six charges at them with his swords.

They start fighting, Six flipping through the air like it was natural. Rex charges with his Smack Hands, and I being all heroic run back to my hiding place.

Okay, okay. I know I said before I was going to come with to help if I could. _If I could_. But seeing as we were facing off the most dangerous people on the planet that didn't seem to be an option seeing as if i even tried to help I would DIE.

"Rex, save One, get him out of here!" Six yells.

Oh wait. Maybe I could do that?

Rex tries to race over to One but get's intercepted by Dos, as the two fight I frantically run to One and start yelling trying to get his attention.

"Hey! Ugly! Follow me!"

It roars and I start to back up as it get's closer. "That's it! Bet you can't catch me!"

And then I proceed to whirl around and run off down the hallway screaming my head off as One chases me.

"Rim!" I hear Rex yell, close behind me.

"What?!" I scream.

"I'm going to call Providence for back up, don't die!"

"Easier said than done." I mutter as I reach the end of the tunnel which was a piece of rock jutting out the mountain.

"Okay that's it…don't eat me please…" I murmur to one, my hands spread outwards.

It roars and I jump. "Rex?!" I cry.

"They said they were coming in five mi-"

Suddenly something hits near us making the rock floor collapse. I let out a surprised shriek and Rex grabs on to my waist as we fall. I land heavily on top of him as we roll down.

"You okay?" Rex asks as I climb off him.

"Besides every bone in my body being broken, yeah…and I so dare you to say that five times fast."

Before Rex can reply he looks up and frowns, the others were back, standing above us on the edge.

"Step aside." Dos orders.

"We don't want to hurt you love." Five says.

"We just try to do the right thing." Trey adds.

"Like Six told you?" Rex replies as I look around.

Those four were in front of us, One was behind us lying near the water, dizzy from the fall, but no sign of Six.

"Forget Six, look at him kid." IV says.

We both turn to look at One, who was starting to growl again.

"He's just a monster you know we're right."

I grit my teeth and look back, glaring. "So you're just going to give up so easily? That's it? Try once, didn't work, then death?"

"It's a losing cause girl." IV snarls. "He's been fighting this for five years, it's time to end it."

"All I know." Rex interrupts, transforming his arm into The Big Fat Sword. "Is that I trust Six."

The other look at each other and then nod.

Rex glances at me. "Get behind me, try to protect One, but mostly try not to die."

"Roger that." I run back to One, trying to get him to move back, get farther away from the others.

He growls at me and I pause. "Oh come one they're going to kill you One! Move!" I beg, glancing behind me at Rex who was getting his ass handed to him.

"Dammit!" I scream, throwing a rock desperately at the Trey who hardly seems to notice.

"No mercy." Dos jumps into the air straight at Rex who had been smacked to the ground, but before he hits him Six appears out of nowhere, blocking his cane with his swords.

"That's your problem Dos." Six leaps at him. "No mercy."

"Yeah!" I cheer at Six starts winning, and then I yell again when One suddenly growls. "Man what is your problem?!" I bark.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I hear Rex scream. "Six!"

I turn, spotting Six being dosed by knockout gas and hit in the head.

"Oh cra-"

Rex let's out a roar and charges towards them, his hands transformed into blue battle axes.

I blink in surprise then smile. "Cool."

"That's new." Six mutters as the others back off, Dos running for his cane which had been knocked aside.

"Been saving it for a special occasion." Rex smirks before glancing over at me. "You okay?" He calls out.

"Me? Fine, we're bonding." I joke, trying to pet One who snaps at my hand. "I'm just going to…you know, stand here out of the way of all the craziness…kick their asses!"

"Gladly!" Rex replies as they charge at him.

Working together Six and Rex knock down Trey, and take out Dos's cane.

"So…does this make me one of the most dangerous people on the planet? What number am I?" Rex asks excitedly.

"RAAAGHH!"

I jump about a foot in the air when One suddenly starts freeing out again, shaking and roaring.

"Woahwoahwoah!" I yell, flailing my arms. "Calm down!"

"ROOOOAAARRR!"

"…Or not…whatever floats your boat." I mutter.

Surprisingly it does stop roaring….just to collapse.

I stare at the beast, before looking over my shoulder at the others who looked just as surprised. "Um…now what?"

Six races over. "What happened?"

"You know as much as me, he just collapsed." I answer, walking around One trying to spot any signs of wounds or anything like that.

"Get out of the way!" Rex orders, jumping down. In the distance I could see Providence planes flying in, but they were too far away to get here in time.

Six and I take a step back as Rex tries again. I didn't know what good it would do though, would it really help trying again?

His hands start to glow again and Rex starts to yell in pain.

My heart felt like it was tearing in two and I hold a hand over my mouth. "Oh my god…"

"Rex, enough!" Six orders.

Rex being Rex, doesn't listen. I could feel tears pooling in my eyes at his pained cries. "Stop…"

I reach out a hand and grab Rex's shoulder. "Please!" I beg. Rex turns around, his eyes were glowing blue, shining light lines were trailing across his face.

"Six…" The voice that came out of Rex's mouth was definitely not Rex's, too deep, too old sounding. I let go, stepping back in shock.

"One?" Six gasps, coming closer.

"You left this place, quit life as a mercenary." The voice continues. it was really creepy seeing Rex talking with a different voice. "And so rarely return to visit."

"I did what i felt was right." Six defends himself. "I-I never meant to dishonor…"

"So rarely, that I never had time to tell you how proud you've made me."

…I know this was supposed to be a sweet moment and all, but I was just finding this so weird and soooo creepy.

Six looks shocked and suddenly reaches out his hand and takes his glasses off.

…That it. I sit down, holding my head in my hands. That's it. I'm done. This was way too weird.

"We;re going to help you." Six exclaims. "We're going to take you home."

"But Six, I am home." Replies One.

The light starts to fade and Rex gasps, I jump to my feet and catch him before he falls.

Six and Dos both come forwards but I don't let go, and the help me carry a half uncurious Rex over to a empty area.

The EVO…dissolves and disappears, a golden light shining from it spreading across the land, everywhere it touched sprouted grass. Six and Dos gasp, letting go of Rex to walk in front up a hill to get a better look with the others. "He's still one…" Six says, putting his glasses back on. "Just one with everything."

I stare at the ground in shock before shaking my head. "And I thought things couldn't get nuttier…"

I hear Rex chuckle and glance beside me. "Whenever I'm around, nutty things tend to happen."

I smile, letting go of Rex's arm and he shakily stands up straight. "Hey hero, how you feeling?"

"Like I've been knocked over by a truck." Rex replies, rubbing a hand over his face before looking back at me. He blinks before a soft smile spreads across his face.

I stare at him suspiciously, that' snot how most people looked after a near death experience. "What?"

"You were worried, huh?" Rex asks quietly.

"W-wha…pfff worried? I mean maybe when you started screaming like a baby maybe a little…" I deny, glancing at the ground.

I flinch in surprise when i feel Rex's hand on my cheek. I look up with wide eyes and he just smiles, brushing away a tear. "Only a little?"

I blink in surpass before feeling my whole face go red. I turn around, crossing my arms and staring at the sea, purposely avoiding his eyes. "Oh shut it…"

We fly back home in a providence jet, Six was driving with me and Rex strapped in the back in our chairs.

"So does this mean you're One?" Rex asks.

"No." Six replies, flicking a switch.

"Oh why not?" Rex whines. "You kicked all they're butts…I mean with an assistance from a certain incredibly cool and handsome young agent but, you know who's counting?"

Six doesn't reply, and neither do I, not even with a zing, I was too busy analyzing the last few crazy moments.

Rex get's frustrated. "Oh come on, you beat every one, why doesn't that make you the new number one?!"

"We're not ranked by who's the best fighter." Six replies. "We're ranked by who's the most dangerous. There was a time when I wanted to be number One, and I was well on my way."

"So…what happened?"

"I met you."Six replies.

"Now…I believe I owe you a hamburger." Six says after a few seconds of surprised silence. "Hungry?"

"Always." Rex says enthusiastically before turning to me. "What about you Rim?"

I'm staring out the window, my chin resting in my hand.

"Rim?"

When Rex had been screaming in pain…god that was awful…

"Rim? Hello?"

I had felt so helpless…why had it been so horrible? Well of course it would be horrible to see your friend in pain and not be able to do anything about it but this had felt…different…

"RIM!"

I jump and turn to Rex, eyes wide. "Huh?"

"Are you hungry?" Rex repeats.

"Huh? Oh sure…" I mutter, staring at Rex like he was a annoying riddle that I couldn't solve.

"Finally, someone's stuck in lala land…" Rex mutters, rolling his eyes.

I look back to the window, gnawing on my lip again.


End file.
